Illuminating Growth: The Science of Light and Plant Development
My Years Fighting Powdery Mildew Indoors
Eco-Optimism - Wild & Free: Reclaiming Community Through Gardening
The Scoop on Insect Poop – and How it Can Help Your Garden
A Home Gardener’s Guide to Integrated Pest Management
Behind the Grow Shop - Navigating Organic and Mineral Growing
A Look Behind the Scenes and Screens in Organic Seed Production
When Regeneration Goes Feral
Living Soil Indoors: Practical Guidance for Stable, High-Performance Systems
The Chicken Deal
Why Biological Controls Fail...and How to Make it Work
The Dance of Nature: Building a Balanced IPM Strategy
Rewild Your Garden with Tredges
Notes from a Dirty Old Gardener: Passion of the Chrysanthemum
Cultivating Resilience: Innovative Growing Strategies at Galiano Grow House
Local Growers
5 Cool Ways to Outsmart Garden Pests - Naturally!
Reclaiming Community Through Gardening
HIGH PERFORMANCE INTEGRATED POWER
FULL SPECTRUM LED GROW LIGHT
A high-output fixture designed for efficient, uniform canopy coverage and easy installation.
The flagship model in the next-generation Varidrive range, the 720W delivers powerful, full-spectrum light across 1.5 x 1.5 m areas.
Ideal for larger tents or multi-light grow rooms, the integrated driver and foldable frame make setup quick and hassle-free, while onboard dimming offers flexible light control as plants develop - or connect easily to a controller via the RJ port.
A strong all-rounder for growers seeking high performance and reliability with minimal fuss.
Just hang, plug in, and grow.
FEATURES
720W full spectrum LED lighting fixture
2160 µmol/s PPF / 3.0 µmol/J PPE
Ideal for 1.2 x 1.2m to 1.5 x 1.5m areas
Integrated driver no external ballast required
Six-bar folding frame 1080 x 1050 x 40mm
Plug-and-play unfolds and installs in minutes
Onboard dimmer (25-100%) and RJ port
Passive cooling no fans, no noise
Weight 4.5kg
FOREWORD
Like so many gardening enthusiasts, this is my favourite time of the year. Planning, building, and planting my outdoor gardens is something I look forward to all winter. Yes, I have an indoor garden that satisfies my gardening addiction, but it isn’t the same as being outside. I am a bipolar grower; mineral-based nutrients indoors and organic outdoors. I love amending and feeding my soil garden beds. I make my own compost, teas, and ferments, testing new methods, often getting my inspiration from these very pages. We’re fortunate to have exceptional writers passionate about various feeding and growing regimes.
In this edition, we focus on two distinct subjects: organic growing and Integrated Pest Management (IPM). We have consistently advocated for reducing all dangerous chemical inputs, primarily toxic sprays used to kill bugs. Many IPM strategies help manage pests and diseases. As put so perfectly by Dr Colin Bell in his article, Mastering Organic and Natural Pest Management, “Natural pest management is not about spraying after an outbreak. It is about building resilient growing environments through healthy soil, biodiversity, and cultivation practices that strengthen the growing system as a whole.”
A.C. Moon Cameron, our featured author in this edition, echoes Colin’s sentiment in The Dance of Nature: Building a Balanced IPM Strategy. When we establish a conservative, balanced organic grow site, it fosters long-term homeostasis for the garden and lets Mother Nature work her magic.
Gareth Hopcroft is a UK-based organic guru, and if you are thinking about giving organic a try, don’t miss Living Soil Indoors: Practical Guidance for Stable, High-Performance Systems. The advice he offers in all of his articles will surely provide you with the knowledge and confidence to give organic growing a try and succeed.
These are just some of the amazing articles in this edition. Trying new things is a big part of what makes life exciting and interesting. Hopefully, we can motivate you to try something new.
Life is a lot like organic growing. When you force things, problems show up fast. But when you work with nature, stay patient, and keep things in balance, everything grows stronger over time.
Happy Growing
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
A.C. Moon Cameron, Adam Clarke, Anne Gibson, Catherine Sherriffs, Claude Robert, Colin Bell, PhD, Dustan McLean, Eric Coulombe, Gareth Hopcroft, Jennifer Cole, Marci Babineau, Martyna Krol, Mexx Holweg, PhD, Regi Oneton, Steve Wong, & Xavi Kief.
PRESIDENT Eric Coulombe eric@gardenculturemagazine.com +1-514-233-1539
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from 325 Media Inc.
GARDEN CULTURE AUTHOR
A.C. Moon Cameron
In this edition of Garden Culture Magazine, A.C. Moon Cameron explores the philosophy of achieving balance in the garden as a fundamental component of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). She’s a 26-year veteran of the horticultural industry; you might know her as the inventor of Croptops Greenhouses , portable pop-up greenhouses designed to help plants adapt to the outdoors and protect them from the elements. A.C. owns a 40-acre off-grid farm in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range and also spends a lot of time with growers in the Caribbean, where she focuses on plant education equity and preserving the legacies of local farming communities and their innovations.
What is your favourite plant to grow and why?
Mimosa sensitive plant and fruit of all forms. Honestly, all plants and fungi are my jam!
Do you prefer to grow indoors or outdoors?
As a patented inventor of a greenhouse, my favourite is greenhouse farming.
What led you to become an innovator?
Necessity is the mother of invention. As an off-grid homesteader and city business maker, innovation comes naturally to me.
What is one of the biggest growing challenges you’ve ever faced?
This is an extremely hard question to answer. While on a Caribbean island, we had a volcanic eruption that spewed massive amounts of ash onto farms.
What about one of your greatest successes as a grower?
Helping the people of the Caribbean and worldwide understand the workings and whys of plant adaptation in genetics.
Where in the world would you like to travel next?
I am blessed with working in some beautiful places in the world. I would like to help Tasmania and New Zealand breach their changes next. Home (California) is also super neat!
What is your favourite food?
I love Thai Thom Ka... vegetarian life... also some good fried artichoke hearts. 3
Are you interested in writing for Garden Culture Magazine?
We’d love to hear from you! Send us an email introducing yourself with a sample of your work editor@gardenculturemagazine.com
B’cuzz Blossom Builder Liquid
Marketplace Vitalize. More than just Silica
Boost your final flowering stage with Atami B’cuzz Blossom Builder Liquid, the perfect finisher for growers seeking compact, aromatic, and high-yield harvests.
Designed for use during the last 2-3 weeks of flowering and ripening, this powerful additive enhances fruit size, improves overall yield, and helps plants produce denser, firmer blooms.
Its exceptional PK 18-23 ratio increases sugar production and boosts essential oil content, resulting in richer aromas and betterquality flowers and fruits.
Highly concentrated for maximum efficiency, only 0.25–0.5 ml/L is needed.
For even better results, combine it with B’cuzz Bloom Stimulator and take your harvest to the next level!
Visit ATAMI.com for information on the full range of products.
Biogreen X-Blast
Biogreen X-Blast is a highly concentrated late-flowering PK additive, designed to maximise your plant’s performance during the crucial final flowering phase and to push the plant to its full potential. X-Blast provides the essential building blocks for producing large, dense, high-quality, terpene-enriched fruits. Biogreen X-Blast also contains added iron and copper to aid photosynthesis, boron to help fruit development, and seaweed to stimulate plant growth. Biogreen X-Blast is a highly versatile additive that works well in any medium.
Ask for it at your favourite store.
Vitalize is Mills’ patent - protected mono-silicic acid product that promotes plant vigour throughout the entire grow cycle. Vitalize contains a water-soluble, biologically active silica that your plants use within 24-36 hours of application.
Formulated to make your plants healthier, heartier, and more resistant to stressors, it can be used as a root soak or foliar spray to improve growth and yield, increase nutrient uptake, and enhance pathogen and stress resistance.
For best results, use alongside Mills Basis A&B in conjunction with the Mills Six Bottle System.
For more information, visit GrowWithMills.co.uk
Advanced Nutrients Flawless Finish®
Grow safe, flavourful plants with Flawless Finish®. This premium bio-stimulant flushes plants of pollutants, heavy metals, and fertiliser salts, so when you’re curing your crop, you keep the purest tastes and aromas intact. Chelation therapy and a fasting regimen remove toxins from the nutrient medium, allowing plants to cleanse themselves of stored nutrients before harvest. Flawless Finish® also allows tissues to ripen with a higher carbonto-nitrogen ratio, unleashing sugar levels that lead to potent, heavy-hitting aromas. But that’s not all; the scientists at Advanced Nutrients even engineered this flushing agent with an optimal magnesium level to create conditions that support mature flowering.
For more information, visit AdvancedNutrients.com
Advanced Nutrients Bud Factor X®
Raise your crop’s value with Bud Factor X®
This revolutionary Advanced Nutrients biostimulant is a favourite among top growers in over 120 countries because it creates optimal conditions for growing crystalpacked flowers bursting with better flavour, aroma, and valuable compounds. It also provides a Natural Pest Defence: the plant oils and aromatic compounds produced with Bud Factor X® create a physical and chemical barrier against insects, protecting plants naturally.
As with all Advanced Nutrients products, Bud Factor X® contains no harmful ingredients or PGRs.
Learn more: AdvancedNutrients.com
NEW DAYLIGHT 660W PRO GEN3
COMING SOON
The DAYLIGHT 660W PRO (GEN-3) is Maxibright's latest flagship LED release, engineered to deliver higher output, greater efficacy, and uncompromising performance for modern grow environments. Now producing 2046 µmol/s at an impressive 3.1 µmol/J, the upgraded fixture delivers powerful light intensity with exceptional efficiency across a 1.5 × 1.5 m canopy area.
Enhanced with added Far Red, the full spectrum supports stronger plant development across both the vegetative and flowering stages. The six-bar design improves light distribution and uniformity, while upgraded bar connections provide a stronger, more durable fit. Passive cooling ensures fanless operation, and integrated dimming allows precise control throughout the grow cycle.
Backed by a 4-year guarantee, the 660W PRO represents the peak of Maxibright engineering and performance.
Landing in stores July 2026.
B’cuzz Blossom
Builder Liquid is finisher like no other! It is commonly known that as the flowering phase progresses, your plants need for phosphorus and potassium will increase as well.
Dosage: 0.25 - 0.5ml per litre of water
Available in 50ml, 100ml, 1L, 5L
The Gorilla 720W (3rd Generation) LED bridges the gap between professional performance and practical value. This upgraded fixture delivers strong canopy coverage with a full spectrum suited to both vegetative growth and flowering. Producing 1944 µmol/s PPF at 2.7 µmol/J efficacy, it provides uniform coverage of 1.5 × 1.5 m for larger grow spaces. Its 6-bar foldable frame simplifies installation, while the integrated driver, onboard dimming (25%–100%), and compatibility with 0–10V controllers allow growers to tailor output to their environment with ease.
Built for reliability where it matters, and backed by a 2-year warranty, it delivers serious output without the premium price tag.
Contact your local grow store for availability
AzoLogic GORILLA 720W LED
Formulated with the beneficial bacterium Azospirillum sp. Its key strength is its ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, enabling better nitrogen assimilation by plants. The result: more vigorous growth, stronger root development, and improved crop establishment.
AzoLogic® also stimulates soil biological activity, enhances nutrient availability, and helps plants better tolerate stress. An innovative solution to support healthier plants and more productive growing systems.
Now available in 10g and 50g.
Check out TerraAquatica.com for more info.
BudBox PRO Titan 6
Introducing the mighty BudBox PRO Titan 6 – a true giant among grow tents. Measuring a colossal 600 x 300 x 220cm, this beast delivers unparalleled space and control for serious cultivators.
Engineered with 12 ports in four sizes, eight easy-access doors, reinforced roof bars, heavy-duty hanging straps, night-vision windows, and screened passive vents, the Titan 6 gives you total flexibility and precision.
Backed by BudBox, the UK’s #1 grow tent brand with over 24 years of industry-leading expertise, you can trust your environment is in the safest hands. Because for elite results, the environment is everything.
Visit BudBoxGrowTents.com to discover the tent that is perfect for your grow.
GORILLA 125W Under Canopy LED
The GORILLA 125W Under Canopy LED is the latest addition to the Gorilla lighting range, designed to support overhead fixtures by lighting the lower canopy directly. Positioned beneath the plant and facing upwards, it targets areas that naturally receive less light in dense grow environments.
As canopies develop, top-down lighting becomes less effective at reaching lower growth. Under canopy lighting helps balance light levels throughout the plant, supporting more consistent development from top to bottom. Compact, durable, and easy to position, it’s a practical addition for growers looking to get more from their grow setup.
Contact your local grow store for availability.
Regenerative Integrated Pest Management (IPM) derives stability from biology itself.
Mastering Organic and Natural Pest Management
Mastering Organic and Natural Pest Management
Conventional systems rely heavily on external inputs to maintain stability. Regenerative Integrated Pest Management (IPM) derives stability from biology itself. Natural pest management is not about spraying after an outbreak. It is about building resilient growing environments through healthy soil, biodiversity, and cultivation practices that strengthen the growing system as a whole.
This reflects a broader shift in how pest management is understood. Conventional approaches treat pests as isolated problems requiring immediate suppression. Regenerative approaches focus on building healthy systems that naturally resist pest pressure and become far more resilient over time than systems dependent on continual intervention.
Healthy Soil Changes Everything
One of the most important ideas in regenerative growing is understanding that insects and disease are often symptoms of deeper imbalance within the growing system itself. The goal is always to maintain healthy plants. Stressed plants become far more vulnerable to opportunistic pests, while healthy plants are naturally better equipped to resist pest pressure.
Maintaining healthy, biologically active soil is one of the most important ways to support strong, resilient plants. Soil is a living biological system that shapes plant health and ecosystem stability. Balance becomes part of the defence system. Healthy ecosystems rarely remain overwhelmed by pest pressure for long.
Observation Is Awareness
One of the biggest differences between natural and conventional pest management is the level of restraint. Conventional practices treat every visible insect as a problem requiring immediate action, while regenerative management promotes intentional restraint before reacting, so as not to disrupt the natural systems already working to restore balance.
BY COLIN BELL, PhD
Colin Bell is VP of US Business Development at MIIM Horticulture. He has worked as a PhD Research Scientist in Federal and Academic institutions for years. He builds businesses, develops products, and grows brands for indoor cultivation. Reach out: colin@miimhort.com
WANT TO READ MORE OF COLIN’S WORK? SCAN THE QR:
There is no such thing as zero pest pressure in the garden. Management comes down to timing, magnitude, and observation. Aphids may already be attracting predator insects, while spider mites often reflect plant stress, drought, or environmental imbalance.
The shift is from asking, “How do I eliminate this pest?” toward asking, “What conditions allowed this imbalance to emerge?”
That mindset shift changes everything for longterm success.
Biodiversity Is The Baseline
Biodiversity—both below and above ground—is part of the balance that maintains healthy growing environments. Monoculture systems naturally create vulnerability, while diverse gardens create layers of ecological regulation through companion planting, flowering species, perennial habitats, and plant diversity that support pollinators and predator insects.
Over time, gardens become less dependent on continual human intervention and more capable of self-regulation. Even when intervention becomes necessary, regenerative systems rely on biological and low-impact approaches that conventional systems struggle to support. Conventional approaches can weaken ecosystem biology while simultaneously increasing pest resistance over time.
Mastering organic and regenerative pest management is not about eliminating every pest. It is about building healthy, resilient ecosystems that are strong enough that serious imbalances struggle to take hold in the first place.
This is one reason more growers are moving away from dependency on chemical inputs and toward biological approaches. The underlying philosophy is simple: when biology becomes stronger, the entire system becomes more resilient. Pest management shifts away from chasing stronger interventions and toward understanding the biological conditions shaping the growing environment.
Ecological Understanding Is The Advantage
The most important advances in modern pest management come from a deeper understanding of ecology. Regenerative growing depends on observation, systems thinking, biology, and ecological understanding. Healthy ecosystems emerge from understanding the interactions occurring within the environment.
More growers are combining traditional growing knowledge with ecological science to build systems that are resilient, adaptive, and biologically alive. The future of pest management belongs to growers who understand how to work with those interactions instead of against them.
Step One is Adopting an IPM Mindset
No single method fully defines regenerative pest management. Across regenerative agriculture and ecological horticulture, the same core principles continue to emerge:
• build healthy soil,
• increase biodiversity,
• observe consistently,
• encourage beneficial insects, and
• intervene only when necessary, using the lowest-impact solutions possible.
Over time, the goal is not simply healthier plants. It is the development of healthier systems.
Mastering Organic and Natural Pest Management
Mastering Organic and Natural Pest Management
The most important advances in modern pest management come from a deeper understanding of ecology
In Conclusion
Mastering organic and regenerative pest management is not about eliminating every pest. It is about building healthy, resilient ecosystems that are strong enough that serious imbalances struggle to take hold in the first place.
Gardens function as living ecological systems shaped by soil, plants, insects, microbiology, and climate. The goal is not to dominate those systems, but to understand them well enough to guide them toward balance. Over time, the healthiest gardens become those that require the least intervention because healthy systems learn to regulate themselves. 3
Iwould like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who took the time to answer all my questions, share their personal experiences and make this survey possible. Every time I do this survey, the people from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland impress me with their humour, knowledge and kindness. I want all of you to know how much I appreciate you, not just for taking the time to answer the survey but for being the backbone of our industry.
Respondents’ Role
Number of Years in Business
I hate to say it, but it is undeniable that times are tough for the UK hydro market. This marks the 6th time I have done this survey over the past 12 years, and this time the tone was very different. The British people are resilient. Chin up, keep calm and carry on are not just catchy phrases; they are part of your cultural identity, at least that is what I see from my Canadian perspective.
In all the past surveys, almost everyone had a pretty cheery disposition and were positive about business in general. Until now. This time was different; there was a general sense of doom. Business is down everywhere, and most people are not very optimistic about where things are going. But still, in the end, the stores I spoke to had that fighting spirit and are doing their best to keep their chins up and carry on.
It was also harder and took longer to interview as many shops as possible. In the end, I spoke directly with 80 shops from across the country.
The first question I ask is the most telling. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the worst and 10 the best, how has business been over the past 2 years? In the past, the average was between 7 and 8. This year, the average was 4.85. Despite the dreary result, many of the shops answered with a low number because they were comparing today's market to times when things were booming.
How was business over the past two years?
One of the casualties has been the workforce: 41% of respondents have reduced their staff in the past 2 years, while only 1% have increased.
During the good ol’ days, a new shop was popping up around the corner from another shop, in just about every region of the country. It was unsustainable, and even a minor downturn can have a strong effect. Meaning stores will close, and they have. When I asked if shops had closed in their region, almost everyone said yes. I asked several wholesalers for their opinion on the subject, and most estimate that about 20% of all shops have disappeared.
So why is this happening? I asked how the customers' buying behaviour has changed. It is obviously a complex issue, with many factors. But almost everyone had the same two answers. Fewer customers are walking through the door. And the ones that do come through are looking for the lowest possible price on almost everything. Other answers were fewer “big” customers and losing sales to online shops. And much to their chagrin, these online sellers are also wholesalers and manufacturers.
In fact, I asked, “What do you think about wholesalers selling direct to customers?” It was almost unanimous, shops are pissed off. Not only do they have to compete with the people who are selling them their products, but they are also often sold at prices they cannot compete with. The phrase "race to the bottom" is one I've heard more than once. 55% of the shops said they sell online too, but for the great majority, it made up less than 10% of their business.
Is Your Store Brick & Mortar and/or Online?
Some good news would be nice about now. There were some positive notes. Many stores reported an uptick in small hobby growers. Often, some hobby customers who had disappeared are getting back into growing.
Now we are at my favourite part, where shops voted for their best-selling and favourite products. Some of the changes might surprise you, and others seem permanently entrenched in their top positions.
Most Sold Nutrient Question #1
Once again, Canna comes in first with a whopping 44%. Not as dominant as in the past. down from 47% last time. Still, an impressive number, and they remain the undisputed champ. Mills came in second again with 14%, down just 2%. Mills continues to perform. They have a loyal following of customers who often follow their answer with a compliment, either about the range or the people selling it, more so than for the other brands. This is in no way a shot at anyone, just praise for the Mills team for building a good rapport with their customers. In third place and also a repeat performance is Shogun. They grew from 9% to 13% and are slowly chipping away at the champ. They have built their reputation and sales on being a UK brand that offers value. And it seems to be working. Hydrotops was unchanged at 7%, keeping their loyal customers. The brand to note that was previously unranked in the last survey is Athena, with 5%.
Question #2
Favourite Nutrient
To me, this is a really important question. It shows what the shop owners and their staff like. Which has in the past helped predict where the most popular products will be. Shops are just more likely to try to sell nutrients they like.
This year, with 18% of the vote, Mills takes the crown and retains the title as most liked. Canna takes second with 13%, down from 16%. Monkey held 3rd with 8% in the last survey, but not this year. A veteran and a rookie battle for third, and in the end, we have a tie. Advanced Nutrients and Athena finish with 9%. Shogun remains in the top 5, slipping by a mere 1%. Many brands were mentioned, but surprisingly, 7% of respondents could not name a favourite!
Question #3
Most-Sold Supplement
Top supplement goes to Canna with 27%, down from 30%. It is not surprising that the top supplements come from the UK’s leading brand. House and Garden has taken second place from Mills with a big jump from 6% in the previous survey. Mills takes third with 11%, up from 10%.
Question #4
Favourite Supplement
This is a tough segment to win, with over 30 different brands mentioned, past winners have often topped the charts with 10 or 11%. That is why this year's winner is so impressive. This brand is not part of a big company with big budgets; it's just a solid product that is gaining share in this contracting market. With a whopping 22% of the vote and a first-time in the top three is Grow Genius Mono Silic Acid. Of note, 2nd place with 14% is NO FAVOURITE! In third place with 9% (slightly down from 10%) is Mills Vitalize.
What is interesting to note is that 31% of the total vote was for 2 mono-silicic acid (MSA) products. If you are a grower who does not use this additive, you might ask yourself why these two products are so popular when so many really well-known brands are not. I am an MSA true believer and have not grown without one since the moment I trialled it. House & Garden and Field Marshal find themselves in the top 5, a significant gain from the last survey.
Question #5
Most Sold Substrate
Once again at #1 is Canna. Users of Canna nutrients prefer to grow in Canna; it is not the cheapest coco or soil, but growers trust it and believe it is worth paying a bit more. That is not the sentiment of this survey; the overriding theme is that growers are looking to save money wherever they can and still want quality when possible. With one of the biggest jumps in the whole survey, our
second-place finisher is ATAMI!! At 17%, up from 2%, they have, in a short time, taken a nice share of this coveted market segment. Their combination of value and quality has helped catapult them to the top. In contrast, our third-place finisher with 16% is Gold Label. Gold Label is a premium brand that hasn't tried to compete on price but stands behind its product, believing that super high-quality comes at a price. Just behind Gold Label, with 15%, is Biobizz, down from 16%. Plagron is still in the top-5 but has decreased since the last survey.
Question #6
Favourite Substrate
For nutrients, additives and substrates, I ask what their best-selling and favourite are. When we see differences between the two, it helps me understand why certain products are popular and what shop owners might recommend if customers ask.
This year, for the first time, Gold Label, a quality-over-price vote, is in first place at 17%, up from 15%. In second is Canna with 14%, down from 16%. Canna has, in every survey I've ever done, come in the top 2. People just trust this brand, price and margins aside, Canna substrates are always the same high quality, and growers know what to expect when using them. You don’t hold onto the #1 position without delivering results. They have a great team of lovable characters, too. This year, at number 3 is Atami with a 10% increase over the last survey. Ecothrive is slightly up at 10%, and once again, a marginal increase for those with no favourites. It might be a case of the “cheap and cheerful” trend.
Question #7
Most Sold Light
First of all, when I talk about lights, I mean LEDs. The term “race to the bottom” was used MANY times when I asked this question. The fact that shops are selling 720W LEDs, sometimes for under £ 100, is wild. No one is making money on these lights. And remember, you get what you pay for. Light degradation is real. If your lights are down 20-30% in 2 years and you are trying to figure out why your yields are down, please don’t blame the nutrients or even yourself. Lights are one of the best investments you can make.
At number 1 with 31% are the Maxi products. Now, this was interesting! Several stores that said they sell another brand more, solely on price, still prefer to sell Maxi products and were clear that they wanted to vote for Maxi. They also seemed quite happy that Maxi now has their “cheap & cheerful” line to compete with other value lines. There seems to be some real brand loyalty here.
In second place is Omega with 24%, up from 19%. This brand has positioned itself as the best-priced unit in the country, and customers are flocking to it. Following the top 2 are the “cheap and cheerful” at 11%, which I can only interpret as LEDs at the best price at the time of purchase. In fourth place is a newcomer, not even available last time. Highlight’s #2, house brand Gorilla, has positioned itself in 4th place with 10% of the vote. Highlight’s two brands have a commanding 41% of the vote.
It will be interesting to see how this goes into the future because the price can’t go any lower, so what will consumers do? Keep going for the best price, or will they bite the bullet and give their plants the light they deserve?
Favourite Grow Tent Question #8
I'm just going to say it: three cheers for Budbox!!! #1 in every survey ever done, and with a commanding 48%. A local brand for over 20 years, Budbox has always prided itself on offering the highest-quality products and service. And personally, I love those guys. In a market where price is so important, it's nice to see a product succeed because it is good, not cheap. Coming in second with 27% of the vote, up from 23%, is Gorilla, Highlight’s house brand. My prediction is that everything Gorilla will continue to trend in the future. Coming in third with 7%, slightly lower than the last survey, is Hydrogarden’s Lighthouse.
The thing is, tent sales are way down. So if you have an old tent with a wonky zipper, a tear, or it's just old and tired, go out and get a new tent. Reflectivity will be higher, and plants love a good, new, clean tent.
Question #9
Most Sold Carbon Filter
Last time, only two percentage points separated 1st and 3rd place. This time was pretty close, too. #1 for the third time in a row is Global Air Supplies’ CarboAir with 32%, up from 25%. The market responded to this product from the day it was launched, and Carboair has never looked back. In #2, with 26% is CanFilter, up from 24%. Can and Canlite have been around forever and are most popular in the larger sizes. In third with 19% is Mountain Air, up from 17%.
Rhino finished in 4th with 17%, and seemed to be the choice for smaller sizes and budget-conscious customers.
Question #11
Question #10
Most sold pH and EC products
Here we have another 6-time first-place winner. With 49%, down from 63%, is Bluelab. This is still a strong victory, but with a 14% decrease, you can see the market is shifting. And it is another newcomer taking their market share. In second place with 23%, up from 5%, is Aquamaster. In third is Essentials, holding steady at 21%.
Favourite New Product
The clear winner with 35% of the vote is “nothing.” Respondents often had a hard time coming up with anything new that they were really interested in. Funny enough, “nothing” was also #1 last time with 19%.
Tied for #2 were ACinfinity (up from 4) and Cold Cure (up from 0). ACinfinity carries a wide range of products, including grow tents, lights, and a full line of accessories. The one that was mentioned most was their clip fans, humidifiers, and dehumidifiers. Cold Cure is a drying and curing machine that is a miracle product for anyone who has struggled with that step in the preservation process. Flowers, herbs, mushrooms, tobacco, you name it. I personally have 2 of them, and I absolutely love them. Coming in 3rd with 7% of the vote is another brand new product, Superboost foliar. I'm not familiar with the product, but those who voted for it had nothing but praise for how well it works.
MEASURE WHAT MATTERS
Introducing the PAR Meter Test any grow light with accurate PAR readings and data logging.
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Question #12
Favourite Distributor
I still remember doing the very first survey. Back then, Hydrogarden and Nutriculture were the big dogs, and this new distributor, Highlight, was starting to make some noise. Fast forward 12 years, and a lot has changed. Highlight once again has a commanding victory with 50% of the vote (down from 56%). In a super-competitive market where several long-established distributors are fighting for market share, Highlight continues to win the hearts and orders of over half of the shops surveyed.
HydroGarden remains a well-respected company at #2 with 15% of the vote, up from 13%. The other big winner here, in third place with 12% of the vote (up from 2%), is Global Air Supplies (GAS). They were highly spoken of, with particular mentions of excellent customer service and how they never screw up orders.
Have You Attended A Trade Show In The Last Two Years?
Although almost 30% said they have attended at least one show, most respondents said it was two years ago and that they were just not that interested. This is significantly lower than in the last survey, where 60% attended a trade show!
Historically, Barcelona was the show of choice, and just about everyone went for a short working vacation. Now the show of choice is in Berlin, and it doesn't seem that too many are interested. There just aren't enough benefits, and Berlin doesn't have Barcelona's allure. Many respondents used to attend at least one show, but the excitement of those shows has waned, and shop owners are staying home. And notably, no local shows or travel to the States!
Are you attending the UK Hydro Expo in Bristol this August?
After asking about European shows, I was curious whether shops would be attending the first UK-based show in a couple of years. This August in Bristol, for its inaugural debut, the UK Hydro Expo is throwing its “Summer Social” event. This reboot of a classic is sure to be a good time. Open bar, good food on-site, camping, and live music for the weekend sounds like a banger of a time, and I, for one, will be there. We had an even split between 'yes' and 'no', but I'm guessing many of the undecided will decide to come. After the tough last 12 months, I think we could all use a good party :0)
Planning on Attending the Hydro Expo?
There you go, another survey in the books. There is no doubt that the entire market has declined over the past 2 years. But that doesn't mean that it won't recover. Many economists and investors use the 4 seasons as a metaphor for the longer-term economic cycle (usually 7–10 years) to help forecast and understand the business cycles. We are now in the winter, a period of contraction or recession, characterised by low growth, high anxiety, and necessary restructuring. But as sure as the sun will rise, spring will arrive, and a period of recovery will begin, with the economy growing again. And finally, summer, a period of rapid expansion and peak growth.
During these transitions, markets evolve and change, and customer bases often have an entirely new set of needs and expectations. Retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers will need to predict how this shift will unfold to grow and thrive. The industry isn't going anywhere, but it is changing.
One thing is for sure: shops need our support. Next time you are thinking about shopping online to save a pound, please don’t. Not only will you benefit from the guidance of an experienced team, but you will also be getting great growing advice. Get in your car, go to a store
When converted to biomass, chemical energy in the form of light supports food and flower development
The Fundamentals of Photobiology
When converted to biomass, chemical energy in the form of light supports food and flower development. Light is the primary input in cultivation that determines plant growth, as the energy from photons (packets of light) converts water and CO 2 into sugars. In addition to driving plant growth, light also regulates the developmental processes during the plant’s life cycle.
The Fundamentals of Photobiology
Photobiology is the study of how light affects the morphology, physiology, and metabolism of plants. Photobiology (derived from Greek, it combines phōs (light) and bios (life), meaning “study of life and light”) can be roughly divided into five dimensions: light intensity, light quality (spectral composition), photoperiod (duration), direction, and temperature (radiant heat).
Before considering the photosynthetic activity of the light spectrum, intensities from a light fixture were historically expressed in lux or lumens, with photons between 500 and 600 nm (yellowish light) weighted the most in this unit, because our eyes are most sensitive to this colour. However, this metric underestimated the importance of blue and red light in driving photosynthesis and was useless for photobiology. Instead, photons in the 400-700 nm waveband are categorised as photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), weighed equally, and measured with a PAR meter. Far-red light (especially 700-750 nm) is also photosynthetically active when combined with PAR light, so the term ‘extended PAR (ePAR)’ has been introduced. Similarly, UV-A (315-400 nm) drives photosynthesis, independent of PAR. The PAR emitted by a lighting fixture per second is defined as the Photosynthetic Photon Flux (PPF, μmol s-1).
PPF tells us how much light (the number of photons) a single lighting fixture emits per second. To determine how many lighting fixtures we need per cultivation area, we must look at the crop’s perspective. The flux
BY MEXX HOLWEG
Mexx Holweg is the Technical Solution Manager and Crop Advisor at Dutch Lighting Innovations, where he combines scientific expertise with practical horti cultural insight to deliver data-driven lighting solutions. He holds a Bachelor’s in Applied Biology from HAS University of Applied Sciences and both a Master’s degree and doctorate from Wageningen University & Research. His research focused on plant physiology and photobiology, with a strong emphasis on optimising light strategies for indoor-grown medicinal plants. Passionate about applied science, Mexx excels at translating complex research into real-world solutions that help growers improve yield, consistency, and crop performance.
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of PAR photons received by the crop is the PPF per square metre, which is defined as the photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD, μmol m-2 s-1). Within this range, light is absorbed by the primary photosynthetic pigments, such as chlorophylls a and b, and carotenoids.
According to the Stark-Einstein Law, when a photon is absorbed by the chloroplast (the cell organelle that contains chlorophyll) in the leaf, irrespective of the photon’s wavelength, one molecule will undergo a photochemical reaction. This means blue, green, or red photons are equally efficient when absorbed by the photosystem. However, there is a vast difference in the efficiency with which a leaf absorbs a photon. As such, red light is absorbed most efficiently, followed by blue, and lastly green. For this reason, plants also appear green, as this wavelength is reflected the most. The efficiency of each wavelength in driving photosynthesis is determined by the peak absorption wavelengths of different pigments and by the fact that non-photosynthetic pigments relatively absorb more blue and green light than red light. For this reason, PPFD values are not always as informative, as PAR weights each photon equally across 400-700 nm. Instead, we must consider the Yield Photon Flux (YPF), which accounts for leaf absorptance across different wavelengths.
The PAR emitted by a lighting fixture per second is defined as the
Photosynthetic Photon Flux (PPF, μmol s-1)
High Light Cultivation:
Many crops are cultivated at extremely high light conditions compared to conventional horticultural crops. In these cases, blue and green light can be more beneficial than red light, which is more effectively absorbed. Blue light alters leaf physiology, increasing stomatal number and aperture (leaf pores), facilitating easier CO2 diffusion into the leaf, and supporting higher photosynthesis rates at higher light intensities. Green light, often thought to be inadequate for driving photosynthesis, can stimulate photosynthesis throughout the leaf via the detour effect, which describes how green photons are more readily reflected within the leaf and absorbed by a greater number of chlorophylls, instead of primarily absorbed by chlorophyll in the top layer of the leaf. In addition, green light can penetrate deeper into the canopy, increasing photosynthesis rates in the lower canopy, which is usually light-deprived in dense-growing crops.
Enhancing Morphology and Physiology through Light
So far, we see that the light spectrum affects photosynthesis and plant growth. However, the primary benefit of the spectrum is to steer plant architecture and physiology, thereby improving crop quality or increasing plant growth through increased light interception. The more light a crop can intercept, the higher the total crop pho -
tosynthesis rate will be. Later, we will examine in greater detail how different colours of light can improve each of these aspects. Still, one example is increasing the blue-light fraction, which allows plants to grow more compactly and eliminates the need for chemical growth regulators to maintain a short stature, as preferred in some ornamentals.
Photoperiod and Light Integrals
Furthermore, another dimension of light is photoperiod, the number of hours of light a crop receives over 24 hours. The photoperiod directly affects plant growth, as a longer photoperiod results in more photons reaching the crop. For this reason, the PPFD, as noted earlier, does not necessarily indicate how much the plants grow. It only shows the number of photons the crop receives per second. Instead, we use the term Daily Light Integral (DLI, mol m-2 d-1), which is directly related to the amount of daily growth the crop would achieve. The extension of the DLI is the Total Light Integral (TLI, mol m-2 cycle-1), which quantifies the amount of light the crop receives over its entire cultivation cycle.
With these values known, a grower can track many metrics throughout their cultivation. Let’s say we want to determine how we can optimise yield and reduce energy costs. We can apply either a PPFD of 1000 or 1500 μmol m-2 s-1 during flowering for about 8 weeks.
Photobiology is the study of how light affects the morphology, physiology, and metabolism of plants
The Total Light Integral during flowering would be 1000 or 1500 (PPFD) x 60 (conversion to minutes) x 60 (conversion to hours) x 12 (photoperiod) x 56 days = 2.419 or 3.628 mols over 8 weeks. Let’s say our yield would be 500 grams per square metre at 1000 μmol m-2 s-1, and 650 grams per square metre at 1500 μmol m-2 s-1.
With these values, we can calculate the Light Use Efficiency (LUE), which indicates the number of grams of flower produced per mol of incident light. 500g/2419mol = 0.21 g/mol and 650g/3628mol = 0.18 g/mol. Technically, these values would be a bit lower, as we should also have considered the light integral during the vegetative phase. But most importantly, we can deduce from this calculation that applying more light does not lead to a more efficient production, which can have a multitude of reasons; CO2 uptake is limited, the strain becomes less efficient at converting light to sugars at higher light intensities, etc.
Harnessing the Power of Light for Better Crops
So far, we have introduced photobiology in general terms and will, in subsequent articles, delve deeper into the potential of different wavelengths to enhance photosynthesis, regulate crop morphology and physiology, and promote the production of specialised plant metabolites such as vitamins, and terpenes. 3
So far, we see that the light spectrum affects photosynthesis and plant growth. However, the primary benefit of the spectrum is to steer plant architecture and physiology, thereby improving crop quality or increasing plant growth through increased light interception.
Basis A & B
No need for a separate growth and bloom base feed.
Basis A&B will give your plants access to all the necessary micro and macro nutrients in their perfect ratios.
Use throughout the grow cycle.
Start-R
Contains two types of nitrogen compounds for rapid root growth.
Provide s plants with a healthy root system in vegetative and early flowering stages, leading to larger yields during harvest.
Use in growth /early-f lower phase.
C4
Flowering booster and activator.
When used with Mills Basis A and B, C4 alters the NPK introducing carbohydrates and higher phosphorus and potassium levels to maximise flowering sites.
Use mid- f lower phase.
Ultimate PK
Ripening promoter and PK booster. Provides the plant with all the nutrients needed during ripening for harder, denser fruit sets. Promotes oil and terpene production.
Use late-flower phase.
Vitalize
More than just silica. Formulated to make your plants healthier, heartier and more resistant to stress factors. It can be used as a root soak or foliar spray.
Use throughout the entire grow cycle.
The Relentless Battle
fighting powdery my years mildew indoors
The Persistent Threat of Powdery Mildew
BY ERIC COULOMBE
Powdery mildew is one of the most persistent and devastating threats in controlled environment agriculture. I should know, as I have been battling it for the past three years. I have been growing indoors for 25 years and never had it once. Then out of nowhere it appeared, and I can’t seem to get rid of it. I keep it under control with regular cleaning and foliar hypochlorous acid, but it keeps coming back. Why?
Why Powdery Mildew Is So Challenging
Unlike many pests that can be physically removed, this fungal pathogen exists invisibly as airborne spores before you can see it on your leaves. Once established, it can drastically reduce yields, lower product quality, and in some cases, lead to a total crop loss. For both professional and hobbyist growers, the most effective defence is not a chemical spray, but the meticulous management of the grow room environment. I’m working on it!
Suspecting the Source
As I mentioned earlier, I have been growing in the same room for 20 years, and I never even thought about PM. I believe it came in a seed pack. Maybe even in the seed itself, if that’s possible. I believe this is the case because the plant started developing PM in the early stages of veg. I’m lucky to have access to some very smart people and so many products. Most were able to help reduce the negative impacts, but I still can’t completely eradicate PM.
The First Attempt at Control
I sprouted six seeds from that pack, grew them up, and chose the best one to clone (i.e., the healthiest one and the one with the least PM). The rest were trashed. I thought I had beaten the PM back, and I felt pretty confident cutting clones and vegging them out for a couple of weeks. Everything was going to plan; there was a little evidence of PM, but I kept spraying them, and when it was time to put them in the flower room, they looked clean. Unfortunately, they were anything but!
Eric describes himself as a pretty happy person, and how could he not be? He’s a husband, a father, a soccer coach, and he’s also a proud Canadian. Not to mention, he’s been working in the incredibly exciting and dynamic indoor growing industry since 2002. He saw the enormous potential for expansion long ago and decided he wanted to watch the market evolve while also being a part of it. He joined Garden Culture Magazine in 2012, and in 2014, he became the owner. He has been sharing his love and passion for growing ever since.
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Powdery mildew is one of the most persistent and devastating threats in controlled environment agriculture
Environmental Controls and Strategies
As the plants grew and became bushy, the PM began to return, especially at the walls where airflow was reduced. I should mention that I bought an extra wall fan because I know airflow is very important for reducing PM issues. I defoliated enough leaves so there were no microclimates or leaves overlapping. I also spaced out the plants to allow maximum airflow. I have a dehumidifier that reduces humidity and helps with big humidity swings when the lights go out. And I have a humidifier, which I also add hypochlorous acid to for reducing humidity swings. The room maintains a constant 48-53% RH.
The Work Trip Disaster
I thought I had done everything, and this pesky pathogen was going to be a thing of the past.
Then I went on a 10-day work trip. Typically, I fill my reservoirs to the top, and they last about 8-10 days. I always have someone check in on my room, but I didn’t ask them to spray. I do now, but didn’t then.
This time, it was my first proper PM outbreak. And it was horrible; so many leaves covered in white powder.
As the plants grew and became bushy, the PM began to return, especially at the walls where airflow was reduced
Dealing with Outbreaks and Regrets
It has also happened with mites. I leave on a trip, and I return to a disaster. This time, it was my first proper PM outbreak. And it was horrible; so many leaves covered in white powder. Had I known then what I know now, I would have thrown out the plants and cleaned the room as if I were going to have open-heart surgery in there. I did not. I thought I could treat the plants and get rid of the PM. What a mistake!
I battled with the dreaded white powder and never did get rid of it. The variety I grew was so amazing that not only did I not toss the flowering plants, but I kept the mother. To be fair, I was able to almost get rid of it. I soaked the flowers in hy pochlorous acid and Enzyme Pods from Key to Life before drying and curing, and my mother looked clean.
So, I went through the whole painful process again. After the second time, I got rid of the mother and decided never to grow that strain again. I also did a deep room clean, and chlorine dioxide bombed the room, which should have killed everything. My veg room is outside my flower room and is in the work area of my basement. Deep cleaning and bombing with gas is not an option.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough. Some varieties are way more susceptible, and it was obvious every time I grew multiple strains at the same time.
Somewhere around the second or third week in flower, some varieties began to develop PM. I did make it through one full cycle unscathed, but in every other grow, it has found its way back in.
Key Takeaways: Don’t Underestimate Powdery Mildew
The lesson of this tale is don’t underestimate PM. If you see it, my advice is to trash the plant ASAP. Unless the plant you are growing is super valuable to you. Unfortunately, I am still fighting the battle because I didn’t take enough precautions and didn’t follow my own advice. I think I’ll clean up my grow room now. 3
Wild & Free Reclaiming Community Through Gardening
Starting from Scratch: My Garden Barter Story
After building our home nearly five years ago, I created my gardens from scratch. My former property had many established plants, so I took divisions and waited for end-of-season sales on other perennials to fill my new space, doing it affordably. I searched Marketplace for things I didn’t have or needed more of, and found a woman in my neighbourhood who was offering daylilies in exchange for something from my garden, which piqued my interest. Finding someone who wasn’t looking for financial profit was kind of exciting! I reached out to her and learned she needed hostas, and it just so happened I had about 65 on my property. We had a deal: I divided a bunch of hostas for her, and she dug up several clumps of daylilies for me.
During our exchange, we talked about our young families and the fact that she had recently moved to my region from another country; it was such a pleasant afternoon! The experience was my first time bartering, and I left with the ‘high’ of receiving plants at no cost, sharing something from my garden, and having made a new human connection.
“Bartering is such a lost art,” explains Stephanie Rose of Garden Therapy and the author of the recently released book, The Wild & Free Garden: Transform your Outdoor Space with Found Materials, Community Sharing, and Creative Ingenuity. “I have this and a lot of it, and I’d like to trade it for something else. Just putting that out there gives an opportunity for these connections.”
Bartering can include trading goods or skills. Once a routine practice, the act is no longer central in the modern global economy. However, people are craving human connection, and bartering is making a comeback; not to replace our current economic system, but to add richness to community life.
Beyond Cost:
The Wild & Free Garden Philosophy Rose has written several books, including some of my favourites, Garden Alchemy and The Regenerative Garden. I was initially drawn to her new release because I thought it would appeal to those who see start-up costs
BY CATHERINE SHERRIFFS
PHOTOS: STEPHANIE ROSE
Catherine is a Canadian award-winning journalist who worked as a reporter and news anchor in Montreal’s radio and television scene for 10 years. A graduate of Concordia University, she left the hustle and bustle of the business after starting a family. Now, she’s the editor and a writer for Garden Culture Magazine while also enjoying being a mom to her three young kids. Her interests include great food, gardening, fitness, animals, and anything outdoors.
WANT TO READ MORE OF CATHERINE’S WORK? SCAN THE QR:
as a barrier to gardening. But The Wild & Free Garden is about much more than monetary savings. Rose admits that when she first started writing, the theme was zero-cost gardening. It evolved into an inspiring read about escaping one-click buying and same-day shipping, turning instead to hunting and gathering, the sharing economy, and becoming a villager to build meaningful relationships with neighbours. The word ‘free’ isn’t only about cost savings; it’s about liberating yourself from the rat race, slowing the pace, and reclaiming community.
“There’s this loneliness epidemic,” Rose explains. “[In 2020], the pandemic taught us how to socially isolate and stay safe at home. It’s been hard for us to transition back into making real connections. Also, with technology developments, it’s made it easier than ever to have convenience at our fingertips.”
But convenience can come at the expense of what Rose calls “micro-connections”: the small interactions that happen when we leave the house, hunt for something unique, and chat with people along the way. “It is really important for us to have experiences where we’re connecting with others and feeling a little kindness, joy, and humanity,” she says.
Hunting and Gathering for the Garden
Before ‘hunting and gathering’, Rose recommends spending some time journaling, an essential step to avoiding spontaneous impulse buying. Determine what you’re setting out to do; what kind of garden are you trying to create? Are you building something for your outdoor space? Are you designing something new or improving what you already have? Afterward, make a list of the plants or things that can help you achieve your goal.
Some might fear that sourcing second-hand items for the garden might look tacky or junky, but Rose believes in the old adage that they don’t make things like they used to, and that if you hunt and gather with quality in mind, you can find beautiful pieces with history. Her book features pictures of a garden fountain made from an old bathtub, a table made with the planks of a former bowling alley, and a gorgeous greenhouse put together with refurbished stained glass windows. It’s all very high-end without the hefty price tag. If you’re in the market for pavers, garden structures, or a new patio set, she suggests searching for something used that might need some sprucing up, promising that you’ll gain much more than just cost savings.
“There’s a set that could be refurbished that might just go to the landfill. So, we’re saving it,” she says. “Secondly, honing our creativity. We can paint our furniture purple and go a little crazy with it, or tile the top of a table. Just the act of refurbishing gives us a sense of pride.”
And pride of place is something we can’t buy online.
The Sharing Economy
After moving into a new home and seeing how many boxes of things she had, Rose embarked on a ‘buy nothing’ year. In addition to only purchasing essential items in 2025, she wanted to get rid of some of the ‘stuff’ she had collected and rarely used. That’s when she tapped into the sharing economy: online marketplaces like Freecycle, Nextdoor, or other community-sharing apps, where you can find items people are lending or giving away for free.
“We can share. We don’t have to hold on to four pairs of bypass pruners,” Rose says. “I give away three good pairs, keep one, and when I need another because mine are worn out, I go to the sharing economy and see if anyone else has some lying around. If we start to trust in building this kind of community, we have access to the largest marketplace in the world, which is all the stuff that we’ve been holding onto.”
Many cities are launching sharing apps and offering incentives to those who want to be involved. Mine recently offered a free subscription to the first 100 people who signed up. I’m now part of a large sharing community where I can borrow items instead of buying them. I can also lend items based on demand.
“These small interactions are bringing us closer together. We’re sharing with people who have needs and practicing generosity,” Rose explains. “It’s an actual psychological phenomenon that when you do something nice for someone, you get these hits of hormones that make you feel amazing. So, you know, it can be purely selfish,
but then also, you get to start practicing being part of your community, so that when you’re walking around the neighbourhood, you see your neighbours and you stop for a chat and start bridging the stranger gap.”
Becoming a Villager: Projects for Connection
Gardeners are generous by nature. Over the years, I’ve participated in seed swaps, plant divisions, and seedling sharing; the joy of growing something is hard not to pass along. One of my favourite chapters in The Wild & Free Garden is about becoming a villager and offers fun project ideas to help you achieve that goal. Events like tool repair blitzes, soil parties, skill-sharing get-togethers, and produce preserving workshops. One of my most-loved ideas is the plant potluck, where the host sets a date and time and asks all attendees to bring seedlings (spring), cuttings (summer), or divided perennials (fall). Acquiring something new for the garden at no cost while connecting and sharing knowledge with other gardeners? That’s my kind of party.
From Inspiration to Lifestyle Change
During our chat, Rose tells me about her book launch for The Wild & Free Garden and how one reader told her she came looking for garden design ideas but left with a full lifestyle reflection. I agree, and it doesn’t require a complete lifestyle overhaul. Start small by choosing to look for second-hand items before buying new, joining an online sharing community, or offering to mow a neighbour’s lawn or the hell strip—the patch between the sidewalk and road—while you’re doing your own. Rose’s earlier books focus on the healing benefits of gardening, but this one expands that idea to include human connection, creativity, and community. The Wild and Free mindset revives old-fashioned ideas —and the more people participate, the more everyone benefits.
“It’s unusual in our current-day society, but this is how it used to be,” Rose says. “We didn’t sit in our homes looking at screens. We went out of our homes, and that was our portal to the world: our front doors, our front porches, and our front yards.”
Hope to see you out there! 3
Find Stephanie Rose’s The Wild & Free Garden online and at most major bookstores! Check out her website gardentherapy.ca for fascinating content on gardening, sustainability, and more!
The on scoop insect poop poop
The impact insect frass has on plant health, pest management, and soil fertility/performance is far more significant than many farmers and growers realise
Are you the kind of grower who doesn’t want to use synthetic pesticides in your garden? Looking for ways to increase plant health organically without any fancy tricks? I’m the same way, and when I learned about the significant role insect frass plays in the garden, it became a staple for my crops – not only for plant health, but for my integrated pest management (IPM) programme as well.
What Is Insect Frass?
Like us, insects poop. It’s just a part of life. They leave behind droppings, which are known as frass in the scientific world. These droppings are often overlooked and seen as a nuisance rather than a vital part of nature’s life cycle. Some growers may not even notice the droppings within the greenery of their lush gardens – but the impact insect frass has on plant health, pest management, and soil fertility/performance is far more significant than many farmers and growers realise. Those droppings contain something very special… It’s called chitin.
The Power of Chitin
Chitin, a potent and naturally occurring molecule, is the core powerhouse of insect frass. This molecule is present in the shells of crustaceans and the exoskeletons of insects. Closely related to cellulose, chitin plays a crucial role in cell wall fortification and in activating plant immune responses.
Nutrient Benefits of Insect Frass
Farmers and growers have been using other ‘poop’ in crops for years – bat guano, worm castings, etc, all of which are basically a natural compost. Derived from plant material consumed by insects, frass is no different and provides a comprehensive nutrient source because it’s digested plant material (poop) being put right back in the soil. If you want a high-quality, slow-releasing additive to your garden or potted plants, insect frass is a fantastic way to
BY DUSTAN MCLEAN
With 30 years of cultivation experience, Dustan has dedicated a good portion of his life to medicinal plants. He was a founding partner and Head of Cultivation/Master Grower for Parkland Flower Inc. He provides incredible genetics to Canadian producers and selected flower and concentrates for the international market. He is also a cultivation consultant with Chief Grow Officer Consulting. He is currently working on several projects, including developing drought-resistant plant varieties.
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enrich your plants with essential nutrients and, even more importantly, beneficial microbes throughout the plant’s lifecycle. You can find fertilisers containing chitin, or add it to your own mix.
Pest Management and Plant Immunity
Another great benefit of frass is that it acts as a pest control agent. Many pests are repelled and deterred by the odour and/or direct contact with frass. When chitin and fertilisers are used together, chitin acts as a trigger to strengthen the plant’s defences against common enemies such as root-feeding insects, aphids, and powdery mildew. What you’re basically doing is tricking the plant into thinking it’s infested, which in turn cranks up the plant’s defences. This helps the plant prepare for and withstand a pest infestation or pathogen outbreak. Made from the excrement of different insects – most commonly mealworms, black soldier flies, and crickets – frass can be premixed into soil, compost, and, more conveniently, brewed into a tea for root drenching. Personally, I’ve found the best way is to pre-mix it into my soil, so I know the frass has been optimally distributed.
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Its versatile design makes it a strong choice for small to mid-sized grow spaces, or as a high-performance supplemental light in larger set-ups.
Just hang, plug in, and grow.
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The sound of adding insect poop to a garden will turn some heads – and some may be skeptical – but the effects of frass on plants, and the game-changing effects on crop health and vigour can’t be ignored.
Not a Pesticide – But a Powerful Ally
It’s very important to recognise that insect frass is not a pesticide. It’s there to complement natural pest control without harming beneficial insects. It won’t cure an infestation, but it will help prevent one and prepare your plants in case a horde of aphids or spider mites descends upon your garden. It’s also there to help your plants be more resistant to pathogens like powdery mildew by strengthening the leaves so spores can’t take root.
Where to Find Insect Frass
You can find insect frass in many specialised gardening stores. It may be called mealworm castings or cricket frass. For maximum benefits, follow the instructions on the product.
How to Use Insect Frass
Generally, I do the following when using frass:
• For potting plants, I use one cup of frass per seven gallons of soil (one cubic foot) and sprinkle a little bit around the plant every few weeks for continued nutrition.
• For raised garden beds, I aim for half a pound of frass per one square metre of gardening area. I incorporate it into the soil every 3 to 4 weeks throughout the season by topdressing around each plant.
Making Insect Frass Tea
Insect frass tea extract is very easy to make. Take one cup of frass and add it to a gallon of water. Apply directly to the roots within two hours of making. This can be added to your compost tea as well.
Tips and Cautions for Use
There are a few things to keep in mind when using frass in your garden or facility. If used in a hydroponic setup, caution is required to prevent clogging and line sludge. I personally don’t recommend using
it unless it’s being distributed to the plants’ medium via hand watering once per week. Within frass, there are insect exoskeletons, and you must accept and embrace their presence as a contribution to the efficacy and nutritional value of the frass. Avoid overuse! Chitin is potent, and too much can cause nutrient burn, so use it in moderation every few weeks. It can also be used for seedlings. Add a small amount into the transplanting hole. This will help strengthen the new roots and protect them against root-eating insects like nematodes (the bad ones).
Insect Poop – A Hidden Hero
The sound of adding insect poop to a garden will turn some heads – and some may be skeptical – but the effects of frass on plants, and the game-changing effects on crop health and vigour can’t be ignored. When a grower utilises the ‘power of poop’, they cultivate a thriving ecosystem. One reinforced by the transformative effects of insect droppings. So, let’s give some recognition and love to the hidden hero very few think about… insect poop.
Happy growing, everyone! 3
I no longer think of my food garden as an isolated zone with pest problems.
Broccolini in flower kitchen garden lettuce bolting to seed flowers vegetables
A Home Gardener’s Guide to Integrated
PEST Management
Ladybird ant standoff with aphids in the middle 3 key players in IPM
My paradigm shift in how to manage pests effectively in my organic food garden has been a series of slow lessons in my outdoor classroom. The garden has gifted me with some wonderful insights into what happens when an ecosystem is in balance.
The Ecosystem Mindset: Moving Beyond ‘Pest Control’
I no longer think of my food garden as an isolated zone with pest problems. Now, I see it as part of the wider garden and beyond our boundary fences—a complex, living web of biodiverse plants, birds, and insect species. This new perspective is a big change from where I began.
When we bought our property just over four years ago, there were only a few perennial hedges that flowered at different times of year, plus some mature fruit and native trees, but these were far from where I started the kitchen garden near the house. I had to encourage pollinators and predatory insects to visit my patch of edibles. I started small, planning to design and support a healthy ecosystem—one that integrates species-rich plants, insects, and birds.
IPM: The key principles I follow
1. Preparation and Prevention - building living mineralised soil for resilient plants.
2. Intentional Design:
· Selecting disease-resistant varieties that thrive in my specific microclimate and provide habitat and forage for birds and predatory insects.
· Adequate spacing to optimise airflow (including vertical gardens) and minimise nutrient competition.
· Rotation of vulnerable annual crops to prevent the accumulation of soil-borne pathogens.
· Timing planting to outsmart common pest and disease vectors.
3. Good hygiene – Clean tools, removing pest or disease-affected plant material, and weeds that harbor pests.
4. Observing, keeping records, and learning about pest life cycles.
5. Deciding on action and controls where necessary.
6. Reflecting on lessons and tweaking strategies to improve outcomes.
BY ANNE GIBSON
Anne Gibson, The Micro Gardener, is an author, speaker and urban garden community educator on the Sunshine Coast, in Queensland, Australia. Anne is passion ate about inspiring people to improve health and wellbeing, by growing nutrient-dense food gardens in creative containers and small spaces. Anne regularly presents workshops, speaks at sustainable living events, coaches private clients and teaches community education classes about organic gardening and ways to live sustainably. She has authored several eBooks and gardening guides. Anne shares organic gardening tips and tutorials to save time, money and energy on her popular website - TheMicroGardener.com.
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I had to encourage pollinators and predatory insects to visit my patch of edibles.
The Foundation:
Building soil vitality from the ground up
My first gardens were in raised beds. After some initial soil tests, I added bulk organic matter, compost, and minerals to build plant immunity from the start. The soil I was creating from scratch was rich in organic matter with all my inputs, but without the benefit of an active soil food web of microorganisms – yet. The soil critters had a banquet of food to break down, but earthworms are slow bulldozers, so that was going to take time. I kept working on the soil seasonally, adding mulch and a wide variety of herbs and edibles.
The first year of growing food, I had reasonable harvests and healthy plants, but it was a lot of physical work. I tried to avoid empty ‘dead zones’ devoid of plants to foster a healthy rhizosphere microbial population. However, the soil preparation was only one step in the right direction of preventing pest pressure with nutrient-dense plants and mineral-rich soil.
Group of orange marigolds planted en masse ipm
Marigolds have helped fumigate my soil, preventing nematode problems. Wherever they’re planted, the strongly scented foliage and flowers appear to repel aboveground insects from nearby crops.
Australian magpie with a grasshopper in its beak pest management
Tiger spider spinning web around grasshopper pest insect to encase it
I take a quick walk around the garden with magnifying and ID apps on my phone to spy and identify insects where needed.
Working with Nature –Intentional design strategies
Later that first year, the common seasonal pest insects arrived. At times, it was a caterpillar or aphid party! Many plants were damaged but not destroyed. Like many gardeners, I felt frustrated after so much effort. I was sitting in the kitchen garden, looking at the plants I’d already sown, and had an ‘ah ha’ moment. Something was missing in my design! The garden was young, and I didn’t have many flowers. My inner voice whispered: “Plant it, and they will come!” That was the start of a massive shift toward ecological balance in the garden. After soil health, that single decision has transformed my pest pressure more than applying any other principle.
Flowers are beautiful but often messy. At least in my subtropical climate, where everything grows at the speed of weeds. I decided to let go of the ‘perfect manicured garden’ ideal. Instead, I carefully selected annuals and perennials that could add value to the garden. There would be blooms throughout the year. I worked with the space I initially had and have since expanded to cover all the gardens near the house and my edible garden. I allowed ‘wild zones’ where some flowers self-sow seasonally and fill gaps. It’s a never-ending patchwork quilt of colour and bees.
Flowers with benefits: The plants include edible blooms like cosmos, dianthus, pineapple sage, marigolds, and nasturtiums; salvia varieties; perennial basil; cat’s whiskers; and many others. All are insectary plants with a buffet of nectar and pollen, attracting many beneficial insects and birds. Natural enemies of common pests include hoverflies, parasitic wasps, lacewings, ladybirds, bees, and beetles. Not to mention the honeyeaters and insectivorous birds that now frequent my garden.
I have selected multi-functional flowering species that provide food for me, birds, and predatory insects; habitat; shade; cut flowers; living mulch; fragrance; companion plants; seeds; fertiliser; weed control; and medicine. The diversity in shape and size offers nectar and pollen to a wide range of insect species. I also allow herbs and vegetables to go to seed. Many Brassica family plants, in particular, are favourites with pollinators.
There are other pest- and disease-management benefits that some flower species provide. For example, the nasturtiums are an excellent sacrificial trap crop for cabbage butterfly and moth caterpillars, allowing me to remove damaged leaves without my edibles being attacked. Marigolds have helped fumigate my soil, preventing nematode problems. Wherever they’re planted, the strongly scented foliage and flowers appear to repel aboveground insects from nearby crops. I have also selected plants that grow well in my local microclimate and region, with saved seeds or sourced as locally as I can. I’ve been breeding my own naturally pest and disease-resistant plants over the past few years by careful seed selection. Each year, they become more resilient. Whilst I still have some disease issues, they are far more manageable than destructive.
The Next Steps in my IPM Strategy
The beneficial majority: Most insects are our allies –decomposers, pollinators, and beneficial insect predators - not ‘enemies.’ There’s only a relatively small number of harmful insects that home gardeners need to learn to identify and manage.
Since adopting a holistic mindset, I’ve realised that integrated pest management strategies help us work with nature. Natural checks and balances between predators and prey function well in a healthy ecosystem. For example, fungus-eating ladybirds arrive to feed on powdery mildew, and carnivorous ladybirds eat insects like aphids, scale, and mealybugs. If pests don’t arrive, there’s no food for these beneficial predators! Spiders are also assets, spinning strong nets that catch winged insects and grasshoppers—aerial prey for them. Their webs signal their presence and ongoing work.
Confuse them and lose them: Another principle is to imitate nature by interplanting with diverse species rather than planting in rows of identical crops. That’s a flight path with lights on for herbivores that use scent signals to find their preferred host plant! They’ll arrive like heat-seeking missiles. I’m not going to make it easy for cabbage butterflies to find my brassicas –they’ll have to wear themselves out looking around a very colourful, strongly scented garden to find what they’re looking for. I hope it’s like finding a needle in a haystack. This tactic seems to work well.
Since adopting a holistic mindset, I’ve realised that integrated pest management strategies help us work with nature.
By understanding the life cycles of different insects, we can learn how to manage them and take advantage of a window of opportunity.
Nasturtiums interplanted with kale and brassicas companion plants for pest management
The Power of Observation and Journaling
In my experience, one of the most powerful tools in IPM is a daily observation routine. I take a quick walk around the garden with magnifying and ID apps on my phone to spy and identify insects where needed. I make notes of when I see different species and which plants they are on. Keeping simple records has enabled me to detect patterns. Since collecting these clues over the years, I’m now familiar with the usual suspects that turn up on cue each season.
By understanding the life cycles of different insects, we can learn how to manage them and take advantage of a window of opportunity. For example, some insects don’t do major damage at a larval stage, just as an adult. By learning to spot early warning signs of damage, I’ve been able to minimise pest problems on many plants. This data makes it easy to anticipate any potential interventions I might need to implement.
Making Informed Decisions and Seasonal Reflection
As home gardeners, we get to choose what kind of damage is acceptable before we harvest a crop. We don’t have the pressure of commercial growers that have a ‘supermarket aesthetic’ in mind. I’m happy to eat an organically grown, nutrient-rich vegetable with minor blemishes. I don’t have unrealistic expectations of perfect produce.
Is insect damage really a problem?
Before deciding whether to intervene when herbivores arrive, I observe if my predatory insect army is already taking care of business. I often step back and let nature take care of it.
I often step back and let nature take care of it.
At other times, such as during a caterpillar infestation, I consider what factors have contributed to the attack—perhaps weather, water, or heat stress. If I need to save a crop, my first defence is small and targeted. Rather than overreacting and causing collateral damage, I aim to respect soil health, support beneficial insects, and maintain ecosystem vitality with simple solutions like manual removal and crop covers.
Seasonal Reflection: Finally, I review what worked in the previous season. I fine-tune my planting plans and reevaluate crops that didn’t thrive or had pest or disease pressure. I assess what I can do better and turn lessons into an informed data-based plan for next year.
What I’ve noticed by applying these integrated pest management principles is that by year three, the garden becomes a beautifully balanced ecosystem. It hits a tipping point where birds, bees, and beneficials are natural ‘pest patrollers.’ They have a reason to be in my garden with habitat, food, and water. The soil has evolved into a healthy environment with an active microbe community and soil food web, taking care of plant health from below ground. All I have to worry about are the seasonal suspects and a daily garden walk. I can handle that. 3
Soil improvements, testing, and amendments
Crop rotation and good hygiene practices
Regular observation and keeping records
What damage is acceptable
Encourage beneficial insects
Journaling, reflecting, and planning
Stronger plant immunity
Disrupts pathogen cycles
Early detection of issues
Prevents unnecessary reaction
Natural population control
Continuous improvement
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The split is probably somewhere around 95% mineral growing versus 5% organic
The State of Organics in UK Hydro Stores
This month, I’ve been asked to write a piece on growing organically from a UK hydro store perspective. The first thing worth saying is that organics still make up a very small percentage of what we actually see day to day. The split is probably somewhere around 95% mineral growing versus 5% organic. That’s not scientific data; it’s years of standing behind the counter and watching how growers behave in the real world.
Types of Organic Growers
Organic growers are split into two very different camps.
There’s the convenience organic grower; the people who like the idea of organics, but still want the simplicity of grabbing a bottle off the shelf and following a feeding schedule. Think BioBizz, Crazy Hills, BioTabs, that sort of thing. These guys want a more natural-feeling grow, but don’t want to study hours of YouTube or have a biology degree and a microscope to make it happen!
Then you’ve got the living soil crowd. These are the growers deep into microbes, fungi, worm castings, compost teas, dry amendments, rock dusts, ferments, fungal networks, and building fully custom soil ecosystems from scratch. With organic growing, you’re feeding the soil biology and allowing the soil ecosystem to feed the plant over time.
The Hydro Store Perspective
From a hydro store’s perspective, we sit in the first category. Bottled organics are easier for both shop staff and customers to understand! They’re also easier to stock. We don’t have things like bone meal and glacial rock to build fully custom living soil recipes. The demand isn’t there to justify dedicating huge amounts of shelf space to them.
That said, the closest UK equivalent we often point people toward is the Ecothrive Soil Food range. It gives growers the flexibility to build a living soil ecosystem without having to source and measure out 20 different raw amendments separately. I think social media and YouTube have accelerated this movement over the last few years. Ten years ago, most growers simply copied what the local hydro shop recommended. Now somebody can binge-watch hours upon hours of Mr Canucks Grow videos over a weekend and suddenly become obsessed with Gaia Green, compost teas, KNF ferments, and living soil ecosystems. Any time a customer calls in asking for Gaia Green, I instantly know they’ve been watching Mr Canucks on YouTube!
BY STEVE WONG FROM HYDRO BROS
Steve Wong is the co-founder of The Hydro Bros, one of the UK’s most recognised hydroponics retailers. What began as a small Croydon grow shop has grown into a global brand built on expertise, humour, and a genuine drive to help growers succeed. Known for understanding what customers actually need, Steve juggles buying, marketing, and day-to-day operations while keeping the customer experience at the heart of it all. He also co-owns Southside Kings Fight Academy, a BJJ and MMA gym where he somehow finds time to train - proving that balance, discipline, and adaptability matter just as much in business as they do on the mats.
Why Do People Choose Organics?
The reasons people choose to grow organically are hotly debated. Taste, sustainability, environmental impact, philosophy, control, simplicity(?), or even a lifestyle choice. Everyone has their own angle. But overwhelmingly, the biggest reason we hear people moving toward organics is the perceived belief that the final product is somehow “better quality”. I say perceived because quality itself is incredibly subjective.
For many people, organic growing scratches a certain itch mentally. There’s something satisfying about building a living ecosystem, reusing your soil, feeding microbes instead of force-feeding mineral salts, and feeling more connected to the overall process. And honestly, I get it. But whether organically grown produce genuinely tastes better is where the conversation becomes far harder to quantify. Taste is subjective.
What Influences Quality?
There are no clean 1s and 0s that definitively prove organic growing creates a better-tasting final product than mineral growing. Genetics, environment, irrigation strategy, root health, drying, curing, harvesting timing, and overall grower skill all significantly influence final quality.
A badly grown organic crop will still taste bad. A perfectly grown mineral-fed crop can still taste exceptional. I think many growers (new or old) underestimate how much drying and curing affect final quality compared to whether the nutrients came from decomposing organic matter or a bottle of salts.
A mediocre grow dried perfectly will often beat an amazing grow dried badly, which is a part that rarely gets talked about enough.
But perception matters. If a grower feels happier, more connected to the process, and sleeps better at night knowing they produced something organically, then that in itself has value. I think that emotional connection is a much bigger driver behind the rise in organics than people sometimes admit.
Speed and Efficiency: Organic vs Mineral
Most of us can probably agree that speed is not the main reason people choose organics.
Whenever I think about optimisation of time, cost, consistency, and output, I always look to large-scale commercial facilities. Commercial facilities need maximum efficiency, rapid turnover, predictable results, aggressive growth, and systems that can be corrected almost instantly when problems occur. And for that reason, mineral systems dominate commercial production.
Mineral systems allow for:
• faster nutrient uptake
• more aggressive growth
• quicker correction of deficiencies
• tighter feeding control
• more predictable EC management
• higher consistency at scale
• easier automation
• faster crop steering responses
Plants in mineral systems are essentially being fed nutrients that are immediately available for uptake. The response time can be incredibly fast, which is why hydroponic systems under dialled-in environments can produce explosive growth rates. But that speed comes with trade-offs too.
Pure hydro systems can become reactive and unstable if environmental control slips; water temperature fluctuations, EC spikes, pH drift, irrigation timing, dry backs, and environmental swings can all snowball very quickly. That’s one of the reasons commercial facilities often settle on substrates like Rockwool as the best all-round compromise. It gives growers strong steering control while still providing a stable, predictable root zone.
Plants don’t care about ideology; they care about stability
How Organic Systems Work
Organic systems work very differently. A true organic setup relies heavily on microbial life slowly breaking down organic matter into nutrients. It’s biologically fascinating, but it’s also slower, less reactive, and far more dependent on environmental stability. Likewise, organic growing isn’t necessarily cheaper either, despite what many people assume. If organics were dramatically cheaper while producing identical yields and turnover, massive commercial facilities would already be doing it everywhere.
In reality, fully organic systems often involve:
• more labour
• slower turnover
• larger root zones
• more environmental dependency
• higher management requirements
• more hands-on involvement
• slower correction times
• more variability between runs
Ironically, many fully organic growers end up spending an absolute fortune anyway on premium composts, worm castings, microbial inoculants, living soil blends, dry amendments, enzymes, teas, and every other input under the sun.
No Magic Shortcuts: The Grower’s Reality
Most experienced growers eventually realise there’s no magic shortcut in either direction. You can grow unbelievable quality organically. You can grow unbelievable quality hydroponically. You can also completely butcher both methods if your environment, irrigation, genetics, drying, and overall process are poor.
What Really Matters to Growers
Plants don’t care about ideology; they care about stability. Some growers want maximum efficiency. Others want speed, simplicity, or complete control. Many enjoy the feeling of building a living ecosystem and being more connected to the process itself. And honestly, that’s probably one of the healthiest things to happen in years. Regardless of whether somebody grows in living soil, coco, Rockwool, DWC, organics, or mineral salts, most growers are ultimately chasing the exact same thing: Growing something they’re proud of. Whatever that is to them. 3
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But what’s the difference between the organic vegetable seeds and the non-organic ones next to them on the rack?
BY XAVI KIEF
When you’re buying seeds from someone, you have high expectations that they will reliably germinate. It’s pretty obvious that an organic seed was grown in organic conditions, and non-organic seeds come from farms that use non-organic materials and methods. But what’s the difference between the organic vegetable seeds and the non-organic ones next to them on the rack?
At maturity, seeds typically harbor microbes both internally (endophytes) and externally (ectophytes). Some of these microbes are beneficial, adding to what we understand to be the ‘holobiont’ organism that is the combined lifeform of more than one species (like a person and their gut bacteria, for example). Others may easily reintroduce disease-causing conditions to a growing environment. What is passed down, whether it is good or bad, happens through a process called ‘vertical transmission’.
Non-organic seed producers have a wide range of options to make their seeds attractive to commercial and home growers, including fungicides, insecticides, nematicides, synthetic plant growth regulators, and polymer coatings. All of these things can make non-organic seeds easier to ship, store, and sell in less predictable environments over greater distances and longer spans of time. The lower price of non-organic seed reflects the lower cost of these inputs and the ease they offer an average customer in finding greater success with the seed, even if it was grown farther away and longer ago than a high-quality local version.
Maintaining seed viability, especially through vertical transmission of beneficial microbes from one generation to the next, can be critical to a seedling’s success in obtaining nutrition and defending against pathogens.
Considering the love and care organic growers give their plants, it would be shocking to discover that seeds might be less-than-organic before they even reach the garden. Part of what has been a cherished quality among dedicated, multi-generational medicinal growers is the continuity of genetics, keeping fresh seeds in constant production, always innovating, trading, and re-generating plants.
It’s part of this generous culture among breeders to share extra seeds as ‘testers’ or ‘freebies’. Because
Xavi Kief is a writer, (re)searcher, and lifelong learner with their hands in the dirt and imagination traversing the universe. Seeking always to deepen and integrate their connection with the living planet and its diverse inhabitants, Xavi finds joy by infusing their practical and playful approach to cultivation with a healthy dose of science. They grow food and medicine for their family and community on the northeast coast of Turtle Island.
Instagram: @xavi_kief
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Maintaining seed viability, especially through vertical transmission of beneficial microbes from one generation to the next, can be critical to a seedling’s success in obtaining nutrition and defending against pathogens
of the high turnover of seeds within the underground trading community, I recommend using any freely received seeds as soon as possible, because, despite people’s genetic-hoarding habits, many non-professional growers haven’t practiced first-hand how to assure quality control in seed production and storage.
Thanks to precision agriculture, seeds produced indoors and under strict sanitation protocols are likely to carry only selected, beneficial microbes, if any at all. As the industry opens up and more people start experimenting with home-produced seeds, a knowledge gap around how to treat seeds between harvest and re-planting could mean homegrown seeds underperform, disappointing the grower and even contaminating workspaces and substrates.
Organic vegetable seed contractors often specialise in growing a particular crop for seed, because each species (and sometimes genetic subtypes within a species) responds differently to different treatments. In general, however, organic producers depend on either fermentation, hot water, or surface sterilisation to obtain clean seed for planting.
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Because of the high turnover of seeds within the underground trading community, I recommend using any freely received seeds as soon as possible, because, despite people’s genetic-hoarding habits, many non-professional growers haven’t practiced first-hand how to assure quality control in seed production and storage
Wet-Seeded Vegetables
Fermentation is the name of the game when cleaning wet-seeded vegetable seeds. These are your tomatoes, cucumbers, and squashes – the plants whose seeds are found inside a gooey, juicy fruit at peak (or past) maturity.
Logically, until you open the harvested produce, the seeds themselves are not subject to surface contamination. Crushing, setting the seed-containing goop aside to develop a nicely gross scum over a few days, then washing and drying the seeds, helps naturally eliminate most of the unwanted disease-causing bacteria. It also removes nutrient-rich debris from the surface of stored seeds, which could serve as a nutrient source for disease-causing fungi during germination.
Dry and Sticky Seeds
Grains and dry-seeded vegetables and herbs don’t have the same layer of protection from external contamination. Best practices for post-harvest processing include gently removing all non-seed plant bits with the help of air, gravity, and screens.
Grains and dry-seeded vegetables and herbs don’t have the same layer of protection from external contamination.
Zig-zag separators are popular among small-to-medium-scale dry seed producers, and handy folks can build home versions inexpensively from plans available online. Modifications to these units can further sift out kief from collected chaff and debris. The sticky nature of seed-protecting flower parts may mean you need to disassemble and clean your zig-zag more frequently than a dry-seed collector. If building your own, consider using latches and gaskets (or other innovations) rather than permanent screws and caulking to seal the box.
Healthy Seeds, Healthy People
Remember which of your end products will be used raw and which will undergo further decontamination when deciding where the seeds and seed-cleaning ‘waste’ end up. Seeds destined to be sold for sprouting or growing as microgreens are held to a higher cleanliness standard as food, compared with those that will be sown outdoors, for example.
Hot Water Treatment, Biocontrols, and Essential Oils
Organic methods to further decontaminate seeds generally consist of a one- or two-part process that involves hot-water baths (or, in specialty conditions, steam) and surface sterilisation with hydrogen peroxide, acetic acid, and antimicrobial essential oils.
On the smallest scale, a sous vide machine can be a helpful tool for hot-water treating homesaved seeds or those collected from friends, neighbours, and community groups.
Hot water treatment is crop-specific because seeds vary in size and structure, so they take different amounts of time to reach pathogen-killing temperatures without destroying the seed (cooking it). Reference charts are available that tell you how many minutes a particular seed type should be bathed and at what temperature for effective decontamination.
On the smallest scale, a sous vide machine can be a helpful tool for hot-water treating home-saved seeds or those collected from friends, neighbours, and community groups.
Surface sterilisation of such seeds, as well as any obtained by happenstance from other sources (i.e., ‘bag seeds’, wild-collected indigenous species seeds), is good practice, particularly if the seed is entering a controlled environment where nature can’t help mitigate the effects of wild microbes that came along for the ride.
Resources
It’s up to you to research, build trusting relationships, and develop your own organic, informed protocols for growing to the highest heights!
Usually, these treatments ‘prime’ the seeds to germinate because they involve some amount of exposure to wet conditions. Even after drying back down to a storage-appropriate range, their shelf life can still be limited.
Organic Seeds, Local Seeds
Seeds produced organically near you, adapted to the soil type and regional climate, and even containing some beneficial endophytic microbial partners, can provide a more complex and interesting growing experience than the often homogeneous but sometimes more reliable corporate seeds. It’s up to you to research, build trusting relationships, and develop your own organic, informed protocols for growing to the highest heights! 3
Robinson, L. (2024, June 25). Seed Treatment: Types, Methods & Benefits | Verdesian. Verdesian Life Sciences. https://vlsci.com/ blog/seed-treatment-guide/ Organic Seed Processing: Threshing, Cleaning, and Storage | eOrganic. (n.d.). Eorganic.org. eorganic.org/node/392
OSC RESEARCH: DISINFECTING SEEDS FOR SPROUT PRODUCTION INTRODUCTION. (n.d.). cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/faculty/agriculture/oacc/en/2022/Organic%20Seed%20Disinfection%20(ENG).pdf
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When Regeneration Goes
Strategies for Grassland Conservation and Land Stewardship
BY XAVI KIEF
Back in the 90’s, so I’m told, you could see clearly from my house to the neighbours’ place over the hill. Now, a wild scrub of mixed brambles and small hardwoods dominates the terrain. As a first-generation land steward, my story isn’t unique. City-dwellers who become growers often become genuinely interested in escaping city life and starting a farm or homestead. Arable lands are, unfortunately, often only affordable to buyers because they’ve fallen under periods of under- or mismanagement. The difficult economics of commercial agriculture, combined with aging farming populations, can cause a break in succession. If new owners don’t have local knowledge or experience, once-productive fields can sit unused for decades before someone new takes them on.
Now, a wild scrub of mixed brambles and small hardwoods dominates the terrain.
Strawberry Fields Forever
Folks who want to grow to the level of large-scale production may need to clear and maintain space. Some others will decide to rotate an existing farm out of animal agriculture into a machine-managed crop system, or a small vegetable, herb, or flower farm, and hope to allow grazing pastures to rewild into meadows or open grassland. Even those who aren’t interested in cultivating a portion of land need to watch for places where previous human decisions have created environmental imbalance.
We’re responsible for managing land in ways that help our communities, like growing food and medicine. We should also care for all species by keeping habitats diverse wherever we can. Learn to spot plants that quickly take over open spaces, understand their roles, and take action to manage or replace them.
Grassland Species on the Edge
Grain farmers often struggle with birds like the Bobolink, which has lost 2% of its population each year since the 1960s. While open meadows and grasslands are important nesting sites for these birds, their feeding on mature crops can hurt yields and disrupt future planting. This can also interfere with research or meeting regulations that require certain crop varieties to stay separate.
Where a field is not designated for grazing or intentional growing, keeping it healthy and open for indigenous species, including those which are globally migrant, is still necessary – and can provide alternative spaces for feeding and gathering, decreasing ‘pest pressure’ on fields in active crop production.
In the absence of large populations of grazing an imals (like buffalo), forest edges can quickly creep into wild or abandoned meadows and grasslands. A single tree, ignored and allowed to mature in an open field, can have a miles-wide zone of influence because of wind-dispersed seeds and pollen.
Case Study: A Buckthorn in Your Side
Where they aren’t indigenous, one fast-spreading group of plants is a type of woody shrub known as Common or Glossy Buckthorn (depending on where you live, Rhamnus cathartica, R.alaternus, and/or Frangula alnus). They’re allelopathic, meaning their roots release chemicals in the soil that discourage understory growth and form dense, shading thickets, cutting off competitors from light.
Buckthorn plants are either male or female, not both. Focusing on removing the fruit-bearing plants helps you plan and use resources to replace them with better, native options. Birds eat buckthorn berries and spread the seeds, so cutting down on this helps prevent buckthorn from coming back.
Buckthorns and some other types of fast-spreading understory trees can regenerate from their own cuttings and re-sprout vigourously from stumps. Even whole-pulled plants can re-root if left to compost. It takes a long-term strategy, using varied tactics, to replace existing stands.
To keep these F’ers from taking over, remember three other key F words: Fire, Feasters, and Fungi.
Buckthorn
To keep these F’ers from taking over, remember three other key F words: Fire, Feasters, and Fungi.
Cultivated, aggressive strain of Golden Oyster mushroom can outcompete local varieties
Fire
A standard practice among many “old school” farmers and foresters, flame-weeding with drip torches in early spring is partially effective against young growth. Bigger trees that need to be cut down and killed over more than one season can be openly burned, but if it’s available, a better environmental choice is to turn them into biochar.
Buckthorn thickets change the soil so other plants’ seeds rarely grow, leaving the ground bare. In a controlled burn, leaf litter and debris usually help create a hot fire that kills roots. Without other seeds in the soil, removing buckthorn often just leads to more buckthorn growing back. To help, try planting native C3 grasses like wild rye and forbs the year before burning.
Feasters
Experiments using goats to help strip and girdle Buckthorn, as well as to allow them to graze on any resprouted stumps, have shown some promise. In these trials, folks reported the goats were very effective against new growth, but without combining their activity with other tactics, their grazing could actually promote the hearty regeneration and spread of shrubs.
To be more effective, combine goat activity with mechanical removal of treetops, cutting thicker-trunked specimens at chest height to prevent injury from tripping over unseen stumps in subsequent visits. In this way, you mimic the actions of the goats as though they were able to reach the full height of the stand. Make sure to remove plant scraps from any bare soil, reseed the area, and consider using desirable replacement shrubs, such as indigenous hazelnuts, birches, and dogwoods, to replace a buckthorn hedgerow gone feral.
Fungi
Until recently, a commercial product containing a registered strain of Silverleaf fungus (Chondrostereum purpureum) was available as an approved control for Buckthorns. The company claimed its product’s strain had a unique trait that kept it from becoming invasive. Given the recent attention to the outcompeting nature of a cultivated, aggressive strain of Golden Oyster mushroom, it is wise to consider that introducing any non-local fungal variety could make an existing problem worse.
Now, using a combination of plant and fungal knowledge, invasive Buckthorn and other small woody threats to grasslands can be controlled, used for the community’s benefit, and replaced with regenerative, locally evolved species
Researchers at the University of Minnesota are currently conducting experiments using a list of native fungi observed on dying buckthorn to evaluate techniques for using them as bioherbicides. Rather than copying the strategy of introducing a fungal partner that causes a photosynthesis-disrupting disease, consider adapting techniques to help spread locally adapted, wood-decomposing fungal species to intentionally damaged buckthorn plants. Mycophiles may note that Paul Stamets and others have demonstrated and promoted tactics like creating spore-infused oil emulsions for use on chainsaws. Mimicking natural damage caused by animals (like big, deep scratches from bear claws, bark removal by grazing deer), wind, and fire, inoculating injured wood can be as simple as noticing an individual of the same species that is hosting the fungus, using a tool to cut it, and using the same tool to cut down, hack at, and generally attack targeted trees. If removal, drying, and chipping buckthorn are available options, research has shown that it can be used as a substrate for growing oyster mushrooms.
Weeds, Invasives, and Pests – A Matter of Mentality
I believe there is space for all of us, while not denying the powerful impact of human actions, our choices, and how they ripple through history in inherited landscapes. These include population changes, differences in perspective and attitude, and dynamics of apparent conflict.
If removal, drying, and chipping buckthorn are available options, research has shown that it can be used as a substrate for growing oyster mushrooms
Developing Integrated Pest Management strategies that are locally appropriate, organic, and animal-friendly means acknowledging that all species have a place in the system and recognising what has disrupted its harmony. European Buckthorns, now found in North America, New Zealand, and Australia, show what can happen when agriculturalists bring familiar species to new places for a specific purpose. Instead of learning about local plants that already served the same role, they introduced buckthorns into these ecosystems without considering the impact. Now, using a combination of plant and fungal knowledge, invasive Buckthorn and other small woody threats to grasslands can be controlled, used for the community’s benefit, and replaced with regenerative, locally evolved species.
Take the opportunity to learn about and propagate regionally adapted plants, and improve any site under your management for existing wildlife, promoting a harmonious, abundant new habitat of well-adapted, mixed plant species to support birds and meadow-loving pollinator populations. 3
Resources:
• Boatright, H. (2025, March 4). Maximizing Buckthorn Control: How Native Plants Enhance Prescribed Burns. Natural Communities LLC. naturalcommunities.net/blogs/news/maximizing-buckthorn-control-how-native-plants-enhance-prescribed-burns?srsltid=AfmBOoohTH2YPuk89jYoxoLTqDeoHDDE9o474kg_zgaERrrsI3coIOX6
• Franke, R. D. M., Rajtar, N. N., & Blanchette, R. A. (2025). Fungi Associated with Dying Buckthorn in North America. Forests, 16(7), 1148. doi.org/10.3390/f16071148
• Kaszynski, K. J. (2017). Cultivating oyster mushrooms on invasive plants : an alternative substrate. Wisc.edu. http://digital. library.wisc.edu/1793/75737
• Schuster, M. J., Wragg, P. D., Roth, A., & Reich, P. B. (2024). Understory Revegetation Enhances Efficacy of Prescribed Burning after Common Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) Management. Natural Areas Journal, 44(4). doi.org/10.3375/21624399-44.4.206
• Buckthorn biological control using fungi, Minnesota Invasive Terrestrial Plants and Pests Centre. (n.d.). Mitppc.umn.edu. mitppc.umn.edu/research/research-projects/biological-control-buckthorn-using-fungi
• Eliminating Invasive Buckthorn With Goats, An Ecological and Habitat Restoration Study - SARE Grant Management System. (2024). Sare.org. projects.sare.org/sare_project/fnc08-737
soil living
Practical Guidance for Stable, High-Performance Systems indoors
Chop
Red clover as a cover crop between rows of grapevines
There’s a strong appeal to living soil systems, especially when you start looking into how natural ecosystems function. The idea of multiple plant species working together, a constant cycling of organic matter, and a self-sustaining soil food web is compelling. And in the right context, it works extremely well.
The issue is that most of these ideas come from outdoor agriculture, where systems are open, buffered, and naturally self-regulating. When you try to apply the same approach inside a controlled environment, things behave differently. Space is limited, inputs are concentrated, and populations can increase very quickly.
What follows isn’t a criticism of living soil methods. It’s a practical look at where things tend to go wrong, and how to use these techniques without creating more problems than you solve.
Cover Crops: Useful, but Not Passive
Cover crops, or living mulches, are often one of the first things people introduce. Clover, vetch, grasses, buckwheat, and even creeping species like dichondra. The logic is sound. More roots in the soil means more exudates, more microbial activity, better structure, and improved moisture retention. It also just looks good. A diverse, green surface feels like a healthy system. And to be fair, it can work really well. Where people get caught out is forgetting that a cover crop is not just ‘soil support’, it’s another crop entirely. It feeds, it drinks, and it hosts pests.
Pest pressure is usually the first issue. Growers are generally quite good at inspecting their main plants, checking leaves for mites, thrips, or aphids. But the cover crop sits lower down, often dense and harder to see into, and it doesn’t get the same attention. Species like clover are commonly observed to act as hosts for pests such as thrips and spider mites, so it’s very easy to build a population there without noticing, and then have it move onto your main crop.
Then there’s competition. In a field, this is less of a concern because the system is large and inputs are distributed. In a pot or even a bed, everything is competing in the same confined volume. Fast-growing
BY GARETH HOPCROFT
Gareth Hopcroft is a certified plant geek and all round organic gardening devotee. Gareth has been involved in the UK hydro industry for 15 years and is currently the owner of Ecothrive; known mostly for bringing frass to the UK scene through his product ‘Charge’. When he’s not talking about indoor growing or microbes, you’ll find Gareth getting his hands dirty on his allotment or falling off his skateboard.
Follow Gareth @ecothrive
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The idea of multiple plant species working together, a constant cycling of organic matter, and a self-sustaining soil food web is compelling
cover crops, especially grasses, will quickly pull nitrogen from the soil. If you’re not accounting for that, your main plant will feel it.
Water is another subtle one. A cover crop increases overall demand and can change how the soil dries. You can end up with a surface that looks dry but is still holding moisture deeper down, or the opposite. Either way, your irrigation becomes less straightforward. None of this means you shouldn’t use cover crops. It just means you need to treat them as an active part of the system. They need feeding, managing, and inspecting in the same way your main crop does. If you’re not prepared to do that, they tend to cause more issues than they solve.
Chop and Drop: Where Good Intentions Overload the System
Chop and drop is one of those techniques that makes perfect sense on paper. You grow biomass, cut it down, and return it to the soil. Nutrients cycle, biology is fed, and you build organic matter over time. Again, the concept is sound. The problem is scale.
In reality, indoor systems don’t behave like natural ecosystems. They’re smaller, more intense, and far less forgiving.
What I see repeatedly is growers putting down large amounts of fresh plant material in one go, especially after letting a cover crop build up. When that material hits the soil surface, you’re not just feeding microbes. You’re feeding everything. You get a surge in biological activity, which is the intended effect, but alongside that, you get a rapid increase in detritivores like springtails and woodlice. In normal numbers, these are beneficial. They break down material and contribute to nutrient cycling. But if you give them a constant surplus of fresh, high-quality food, their populations will expand quickly.
At that point, behaviour can change. Under high population pressure, particularly if food availability drops or the soil dries slightly, springtails have been observed to opportunistically feed on softer plant tissues, including root hairs of new transplants. Whether it’s direct feeding or incidental damage, the result is the same: poor establishment and stalled growth.
There’s also the issue of nitrogen being tied up during decomposition, especially where large volumes of material are added or where overall carbon levels are elevated. The system has to process that material, and in the short term, that can reduce nitrogen availability to the plant.
The fix is straightforward: don’t treat chop-and-drop as a bulk input. Smaller, more frequent additions are far more stable. If you’ve got a lot of plant material, it’s often better to compost it separately or dry it and bring it back in gradually. You still get the benefit, just without the spike in activity that causes problems.
Feeding the System Means Feeding Everything
This becomes even more apparent when you start looking at insects in the system.
Take rove beetles, for example, commonly introduced for fungus gnat and thrip control. They’re effective predators, but they’re not strictly selective. In systems where nutrient-rich top dressings are applied, particularly those containing frass, fish meal, bone meal, or other protein sources, they have been observed feeding on these inputs as well as prey.
So now you’ve created a situation in which your pest control organism is also supported by your fertility inputs. Their population increases, and once it does, they don’t just stay in the soil. At higher population densities, or when disturbed, they can become more mobile. They climb plants and, in some cases, take flight.
That’s where it becomes a real issue. In enclosed environments, they can end up in the canopy and, in worst cases, stuck in flowers. If you’re producing a harvested product, you don’t want to deal with that.
There’s a broader point here. Increasing biological diversity sounds like a good thing, but every addition brings more interactions. More interactions mean more variables, and in a controlled environment, that usually means more ways for things to go wrong.
For soil pests, more targeted approaches tend to be more reliable. Steinernema feltiae nematodes provide a rapid knockdown of fungus gnat larvae, and predators like Stratiolaelaps/Hypoaspis offer longer-term suppression. They are more predictable and don’t introduce the same level of system-wide complexity.
Mulch Layers: Keep It Light
Mulch is another area where more is often seen as better. Thick layers of straw or hay are often used to mimic a forest floor. In practice, indoors, that’s rarely necessary and can create issues.
A thick mulch layer retains moisture and reduces airflow at the soil surface. This can create conditions that favour saprophytic organisms, including botrytis. Botrytis is naturally present in most environments and will readily colonise decaying organic matter. Under favourable conditions, it can then move onto living plant tissue.
You also begin to limit gas exchange at the surface, creating a more stable habitat for pests and detritivores. The reality is you don’t need much. A light, loose layer that just shades the soil and reduces evapouration is enough. Something that lattices together without compacting. You’re aiming to protect the surface, not bury it.
No-Till: Useful, but Not a Rule
No-till is often treated as a core principle of living soil, and it does have clear benefits. Less disturbance, preserved structure, and reduced labour. But it’s not always the best option in a controlled system, especially over multiple cycles.
In some systems, nutrients from top dressings tend to remain concentrated in the upper layer for longer than intended. At the same time, repeated watering and root cycling can lead to gradual structural changes. In container systems, especially, this can show up as slight compaction over time and less consistent root anchoring.
Thick layers of straw or hay are often used to mimic a forest floor. In practice, indoors, that’s rarely necessary and can create issues
Biology will redistribute nutrients, particularly in systems with active worm populations, but it takes time. If you’re running fast cycles and want consistent results, that delay can work against you.
Lightly mixing amendments into the top 6 to 10 inches between cycles is often a more reliable approach. It ensures more even nutrient distribution, improves early root access, and gives you a chance to assess and correct soil structure. If compaction is present, it can be addressed at that point.
This doesn’t mean abandoning no-till completely. A hybrid approach tends to work well. Leave the soil undisturbed when it’s performing, and intervene when it starts to drift.
Final Thoughts
Most of these techniques are built on solid principles. Cover crops, mulch layers, chop-and-drop, beneficial insects, and no-till. They all have a place, and they all work under the right conditions. Where things go wrong is in assuming that more is always better, or that mimicking nature as closely as possible will automatically lead to better results.
In reality, indoor systems don’t behave like natural ecosystems. They’re smaller, more intense, and far less forgiving. If you add a food source, the population will grow. Adding complexity increases the number of variables you need to manage.
The most reliable living soil systems aren’t the most complex. They’re the ones where inputs are controlled, changes are deliberate, and biology is encouraged without running unchecked. That may be less romantic than the idea of a fully self-regulating ecosystem, but it’s what tends to work in practice. 3
The Chicken Deal Chicken Deal
...considerations for fallow times ...considerations for fallow times
BY MARCI BABINEAU
‘Tis a week before the Vernal Equinox as I write this. I am looking out at what we in the Quebec Laurentians call the second winter . It is not as good as a second breakfast, but it lasts longer. Just last week, I was singing the praises of spring, hoping she would hear me and stay! But alas, ’twas just a flirtation.
I try to content myself, understanding that under the snow and ice, much has begun to percolate. When spring finally throws off the mantle of winter, it’s well underway. The underground network has been invoked! I pacify myself, thinking of the benefits of lying fallow, letting nature have its way, blah, blah, blah...Then, I get myself to the greenhouse. Three summers ago, my family and I dug and built a 60-foot, sunken, passive-solar, geothermal model made by Greenhouse in the Snow. There was no looking back.
In late November, when I put my seasonal work to bed, I took my eight hens to the greenhouse for their spa vacation. They had stopped laying sometime earlier in November. With the sun, warmth, chickweed, and dirt floor of the greenhouse, they began laying a month later!
In addition, the greenhouse’s ambient temperature rose several degrees due to their body heat. Already, the greenhouse has south-facing passive solar, passive geothermal “heating”, and the ever-popular thermal mass of soil berms. Passive solar can be as reliable as our Canadian spring. Passive geothermal is achieved with a blower fan set over a hole in the ground that blows air through a 10-foot-deep trench for 250 feet, until the air is warmed to the homeostatic temperature of about 10°C (50°F) as it returns to the greenhouse. A well-fed hen will generate 8 BTUs per hour. That’s about a third of a watt each per hour.
Marci Babineau grew up in gardens in California and Georgia. She currently gardens north of Montreal, Quebec, where she has nestled a food forest into a south facing hillside. Working in organic gardening and landscaping for 40 years, she has written about and taught a variety of gardening topics to young and old in Montreal and Cambridge,UK.
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In late November, when I put my seasonal work to bed, I took my eight hens to the greenhouse for their spa vacation.
The extra heat they have generated this winter has made the difference between having to clear the snow off the greenhouse and having it melt and slide off on its own. For their size, they are the highest heat-generating livestock. People have been heating with them for millennia. Diverse power sources reduce the risk of a single point of failure. Every little bit helps.
Within weeks, the hens had devoured the chickweed growing across the floor and over the beds. When they had vanquished that, they began to bully the little avocado trees and sprouting artichokes. I wrapped them in gauze to protect early growth. They tried the low-lying leaves of the citrus, but judging from the haggard look of what remained, citrus leaves aren’t serious chicken food. What they love is brassicas, as the hen pecked stalks of the two-year-old kale tree can attest to. They have me trundling water, ground cabbage, and kitchen scraps up the hill several times a week. What can I do? I love their eggs!
The extra heat they have generated this winter has made the difference between having to clear the snow off the greenhouse and having it melt and slide off on its own.
Of course, this reciprocal relationship also includes a generous pile of stinky. In Chinese tradition, the hen embodies fertility and care. Some would say this is the better part of their fertility and care. I could hear my citrus, figs, pomegranates, artichokes, and avocados, even the soil was clamoring for a taste. With consideration for the proliferation of Salmonella, I should note that when sunlight hits a chicken turd, it kills this bacterium. Nonetheless, it’ll burn annuals if it’s too fresh.
The main problem with the stinky in concentration is plant nutrient burn. A five to six-week grace period is generally recommended for composting. However, in the travails of winter spa life, the hens have been distributing this treasure at will, scratching it into the soil. Job done! Still, there are great piles beneath their roosts as yet unintegrated. Because we’ve already had many days above 30 °C in the greenhouse, composting has been accelerated. I can distribute these piles around the bases of the established overwintering plants without penalty.
Successive watering continues to break down and release this gift over time. The rest I will distribute and dig into the greenhouse community garden beds. No heaving great sacks up the hill. Just eight well-fed hens!
In Chinese tradition, the hen embodies fertility and care.
After the equinox, their snowbirding comes to an end. Hens won’t coexist with seedlings. With the melt, the interior shallow wells at the end of the greenhouse are filled. This signals that their days are numbered. They must return to the world of the icy snow-covered coop and watch winter slowly recede with the rest of us.
In my fallow hours this winter, I’ve been rereading “The One Straw Revolution” by Fukuoka. For those who haven’t read it, I do not pretend to begin to represent its bounty here. It’s chock-full of wonderful retreading of the thought streams of our food systems. My single favourite idea Fukuoka submits is “do nothing farming”. This is an entire treatment of simplifying and integrating food systems while taking them firmly in hand; it has become my main consideration for advancing practices. This, along with my above pondering, leaves me with considerations for fallow times. What are our existing food systems? How do we use the resources at our fingertips: soil, sun, water, strength of the seasons, rocks, other existing plants, time, and other humans to derive our best lives? Can they be simplified, purified, integrated? I find the answers to these snowy day questions begin to unwind and present themselves with some willingness as we accept the blessings of fallow times. 3
FAILS FAILS Why BIOLOGICAL CONTROL BIOLOGICAL
… and How To Make It Work
I grew my first medicinal plants in 1985.
Back in the days, we weren’t thinking about biological control. If some spider mites became an issue, we used sprays like pyrethrins or chemical acaricides, such as abamectin (Avid). When growers reach out to us today, they are usually dealing with a full-blown infestation and are expecting a miracle. Some took precautions by introducing predatory mites in slow-release sachets or using nematode drenches, but didn’t fully understand what they were doing. They’ll tell us that they tried beneficial insects, and they didn’t work.
I’ve heard that line more times than I can count. They introduced predators and had high expectations, but a few weeks later, nothing improved. So, they went back to what felt reliable: spraying their plants with products approved by Health Canada for food and medicine production, such as soaps containing potassium salts, fatty acids, minerals, or vegetable oils. What they don’t realise is that the biological control hasn’t failed; it just didn’t behave as they expected it would.
From Reaction to Prevention
When people notice an infestation starting in their plants, they want to act quickly and achieve immediate results. Most chemical and some organic pesticides show rapid improvement. However, pests can build resistance to chemical pesticides, and organic pest deterrents, such as oils and soaps, can cause phytotoxicity. Biological systems don’t work that way.
Predatory mites, insects, and parasitoids are part of a living system. They respond to their environment and the availability of prey. They will establish and reproduce, or won’t, if the temperatures or relative humidity conditions are not right for them. They can’t solve problems overnight. Remember that trying to cure a problem is always harder than preventing it.
BY CLAUDE ROBERT
Claude Robert is an IPM specialist with Anatis Bioprotection in Canada. He works directly with commercial growers and licensed producers to implement biological control programmes, focusing on prevention, system design, and long-term crop stability across greenhouse and indoor production systems. A lifelong gardener with a deep passion for entomology and biodiversity, he has also been involved in environmental activism for the past 35 years.
Remember that trying to cure a problem is always harder than preventing it
Thrips:
The Problem Most People Don’t See
Thrips are a perfect example of why biological control often seems to fail. The first larval stages you see running on the leaf are only a fraction of the population. Thrips have many life stages. Adults lay their eggs directly into plant tissue, where they are protected from sprays and predators. The two larval stages feed on leaves, creating the silver and whitish streaks of damage that growers first recognise. Then they drop into the substrate, where they undergo two pupal stages before emerging as adults. The cycle never stops! The most common species found are the Onion and Western Flower thrips. If your intervention plan targets only one or two stages, usually the visible ones, you never really catch up. Thrips multiply exponentially: in a room kept at 26°C, one thrip becomes 5,800 in 60 days!
Each layer of control reduces pressure at a different stage of the lifecycle. Together, they create stability.
The Role of the Environment
Temperature, humidity, airflow, and crop density can all influence how pests and auxiliaries behave. Dense canopies can protect thrips or create conditions for powdery mildew. Dry conditions can slow predator development. Most species of predatory mites need more than 60% relative humidity to reproduce. Very high temperatures will favour most pests and reduce the activity of certain predators, who need optimal environmental conditions to be efficient.
Learning to Observe Again
Observation remains the most valuable tool. Crop walks are very important for seeing and feeling your plants. Properly identify pests with a good old-fashioned magnifying glass or the new digital ones you can use with your phone. A bang board or a white plate can improve scouting efficiency; place it under the plants, gently shake or tap the foliage, and see what falls. Many pests, predators, larvae, and mites are easy to miss when you’re only looking at the leaves. Observe if the infestation is increasing. Where are the hotspots forming? To get the best results, you need to observe early and consistently: at least once
A Different Way to Think About Control
Biological control doesn’t fail because it’s ineffective. It fails when it’s used too late as a reaction. When using prevention and understanding the life cycles of the pests you may face, you increase your chances of having a healthy crop. It will cost you much less and improve the productivity and quality of plants. It’s always easier to keep a system balanced than to fix one that’s spiraling. Once you start working with that mindset, biological control becomes something your
Sticky card with thrips, fungus gnats, and whiteflies
The Dance of Nature
Building a Balanced IPM Strategy
BY A.C. MOON CAMERON
What is Integrated Pest Management?
IPM is so much more than adding beneficial insects, like ladybugs and lacewings, to the garden. It’s a full field of studies that requires essential research for lasting effects and balance. Every environment is different, so when implementing IPM strategies, one must dive deep into studying their own microclimates and the details of what is present in the area.
Things to Study Before
Implementing IPM Strategies
Temperatures
Temperature is the key component. Managerial pests, such as ladybugs, only thrive in a 30-degree window. Any extreme temperatures will wipe out populations, especially when importing predators from afar. Bugs have programmes that are endemic to their environ ment and will leave as soon as they are released if not given the proper climate to thrive. The presence of aphids alone will not keep them there if the loca tion is not suited for them. Also, moulds, mildews, and many forms of infection have temperature thresholds for growth.
Flora and Fauna
successful garden site.
Humidity and Atmosphere
What types of trees and plants do you have in the surrounding environment? Is it a conifer evergreen forest, a desert, or an oak plateau? The native plants and surroundings dictate the plans and predators or controls that need to be implemented. Often, heavy construction or weed removal can cause a pest to switch to feeding on cultivated plants. Trap plants, such as milkweed, provide a meal for insects that, when removed, will seek other haustoria to exist within. Studying the native plants and organisms in your area will give you valuable insight into potential imbalances you may need to address.
Sun and Shade Exposure
What type of UV spectrum does your grow site receive? Is it in full sun all day, or are there times when light mapping is needed? Most pests and problems thrive in dark, warm spaces, so pay attention to the corners of your map to identify potential areas that need balancing.
Do you live in a humid or dry climate? Consider how windy the area is and which direction it blows from. Wind is a pest’s preferred mode of travel, so pay attention to the surroundings to spot potential pitfalls from nearby objects. Possibly, a local job site nearby bulldozes a field. Those critters and fungal bodies will become airborne and seek refuge in close environments.
Soil types and pH
Certain soils, in tandem with the flora, harbor issues such as overwintering insects, dormant moulds, and viruses. Other soils may be clay-based and have little to no drainage, thereby increasing the risk of failure. In partnership, the pH of soil and water can either exacerbate or resolve issues depending on the specific infection. Raising pH often eliminates many pests and fungal bodies that cannot thrive in acidic conditions.
When we establish a conservative, balanced organic grow site, it fosters long-term homeostasis for the garden. Instead of purchasing predators such as lacewing and ladybugs, invite them in with ecological preservation and let Mother Nature work her magic.
The
Dance Integrated Pest Management is not an application, spray, or blanket remedy. It is a dance of nature, where every aspect contributes to the beauty of a successful garden site. With IPM, we study organic existence and help nature heal itself by using what is found in our natural ecology.
The very first rule of Integrated Pest Science is monitoring. To be present on your earth, you must watch and see how everything interacts in the garden. For example, knowing that ants protect aphids is vital information. It lets you know that you must balance the ant presence to allow predators to battle the aphid population. It is all the symbiosis of life.
Everything has a Predator, Cause, Effect, and a Balance
Creating a natural and organic space is paramount. Do not use pesticides or herbicides; let Mother Nature balance herself. Chemicals weaken the ecology and allow infections to take over. The most effective plan is to focus on attraction and conservation. Cultivate flowering plants and nectar-rich botanicals such as fennel, dill, alyssum, and other herbal essence emitters. Allow trap or banker plants and weeds to thrive at the edges to give pests an alternative habitat and to invite predatory wasps.
Do not overharvest the forest near your growing sites during the farming seasons, as this major environmental imbalance takes nature a while to repair, and any pressure that may have been naturally present becomes concentrated.
When we establish a conservative, balanced organic grow site, it fosters long-term homeostasis for the garden. Instead of purchasing predators such as lacewing and ladybugs, invite them in with ecological preservation and let Mother Nature work her magic. 3
Pest-Repelling Cultivars
Consider bordering gardens with the following plants for an effective IPM strategy:
• Marigolds: These beautiful flowers produce a phytochemical called Thiophene, which repels nematodes, aphids, and whiteflies.
• Nasturtiums: These act as an effective trap crop and often attract pests from other plants.
• Basil: Repels tomato hornworms, mosquitoes, and flies.
• Lavender: This strong aromatic plant deters moths, fleas, and flies.
• Mints: Effective control of ants, aphids, cabbage moths, and mice.
• Rosemary: This plant helps repel rust flies and cabbage moths.
• Alliums: Onions, garlic, and chives ward off aphids, spider mites, and cabbage worms.
• Dill: This beautiful plant repels aphids, spider mites, and squash bugs while attracting ladybeetles, parasitic wasps, and predator mites.
Rewild Your Garden with tredges
A robin sitting in a hawthorn tredge
A dwarf Japanese maple Forsythia
Anyone – anywhere in the world can plant a tredge, which is a row of trees planted close together as a hedge. In Britain, gardeners are being urged to plant as many tredges as possible to restore lost woodlands.
“If you are a U.K. resident, it’s entirely possible that your garden is actually located on a site that once was ancient woodland,” says Hazel Draper, communications lead and co-founder of Wild Card, a U.K. non-profit conservation group advocating for ordinary citizens and large landowners to rewild land [1]
More than 70% of Britain’s ancient woodlands have been lost or damaged in the last 100 years due to coniferous planting, overgrazing, development, and the spread of invasive species such as rhododendron [2]
To restore what has been lost, the U.K. government has set an ambitious target to reclaim at least 16.5% of England’s total land area by 2025 [3]. Gardeners across the U.K are being encouraged to do their part by planting tredges. These are medium-sized trees (4–12 metres tall) that can be planted as a hedgerow or as a standalone in an urban garden. Even one tree can link migratory routes for birds and insects, providing them with nesting and rest areas.
“Our native species of insects, birds, and mammals have co-evolved with our native trees. Even our smaller ones are important in providing a haven for our specialist species,” Draper says.
Draper also explains that these plantings replicate an environment that would have existed at the edges of ancient woodlands, helping create wildlife corridors that enable species to move safely between spaces, including in urban areas.
Tredges and Ecotones
The transitional space between two habitats is called an ecotone [4,5,6]. The term was first coined in 1904 and combines the Greek root eco- (ecology) with -tone, derived from tonos, meaning 'tension'. An ecotone can be a very narrow, clearly defined boundary, or it can stretch across a broad geographical area, connecting species from different habitats.
Typically, these liminal spaces occur along the banks of streams or rivers where forests transition into wetland or riparian zones. They may be what joins a farmer’s field to the forest beyond, creating both open fields and covered forests for wildlife to forage and plants to grow.
BY JENNIFER COLE
Jennifer is an avid gardener and journalist whose bylines have appeared in publications such as Reasons to be Cheerful, Sierra Digital, Canadian Geographic, and Rewilding. When not writing about how to create and maintain climate-friendly home gardens, you can find her planting and enjoying her small urban garden in Vancouver.
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Gardeners are being urged to plant as many tredges as possible to restore lost woodlands
While garden hedges are not considered true ecotones, they can act like ecotones by creating a space between an urban and a rural environment, or even between a garden and a street.
Tredges with Benefits
Tredge hedges help reduce noise levels between spaces, such as between a roadway and a garden, by up to 8 decibels. Like all trees, they absorb and store carbon, cool nearby areas through shade and transpiration, and filter and block wind, reducing wind chill on adjacent buildings and improving energy efficiency.
Managing rainfall is an increasing issue for towns and cities due to the continuing reduction in the area of available permeable surfaces. A 2016 survey by the RHS suggested that one in four UK front gardens are paved over, and that nearly one in three have no plants. A tree's roots will mitigate this by reaching deep underground, creating pockets and tunnels in the soil that enhance its ability to absorb water and mitigate flooding risks.
One of the most incredible superpowers of a tredge is its ability to reduce air pollution. Long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution has been linked to cardiovascular, respiratory, and neurological health issues. A study by Lancaster University showed that surrounding schools with trees can greatly reduce these pollutants. Research conducted at three primary schools in England examined how “tredges” were being used as two-metre hedges. The results were conclusive: dwarf western red cedars removed about 50% of black carbon from the air [8]
To successfully remove pollutants from the air, researchers noted that it matters how the tredge is planted and what type of tredge is used. Tredges should be close to local traffic sources, but their height should never exceed that of adjacent buildings. If too tall, the airflow and upward dispersion, which large, tall trees can induce, will ironically worsen the effects of roadside pollution.
Essential Tredge Care
Plant native trees: Gardeners are being urged to choose trees grown under the UKISG (UK and Ireland Sourced and Grown) scheme. These trees are grown from seed within the UK and Ireland, reducing the risk of introducing pests and diseases — one of the biggest threats facing native woodlands [9]
Trimming tredges: Left unclipped, most hedges will grow out of control. To prevent this, trimming tredges once or twice a year to shape and keep growth in check is recommended.
Mulch and compost: Keep the root base of the tredge fortified with compost. In winter, leaf mulch will keep the tree's roots and the surrounding soil healthy, helping it fend off diseases and pests.
By following these simple steps, a tredge can thrive for decades, potentially outlasting several fence replacements. This longevity makes tredges a cost-effective addition to any garden. When properly trimmed, deciduous tredges minimise the space required and may even create new areas underneath for planting and wildlife habitat.
“Being able to support the process of returning native ancient woodland species in our own gardens could be a really significant element of providing an important habitat for nature while these habitats are being restored,” Draper says. 3
One of the most incredible superpowers of a tredge is its ability to reduce air pollution.
The Perfect Tredge
Mark Gush, the RHS’s head of environmental horticulture, told the Guardian newspaper in December 2025 that for gardeners seeking a small tree, the English Hawthorne (Crataegus laevigata) is ideal. Preferring sun or part shade, it grows 4-8 metres in height [10]
Beech (Fagus sylvatica): Plant beech in spring 25 to 45 cm apart in a sun to part shade location. Beech grows to 30 metres in height unless trimmed.
Holly (Ilex aquifolium): Plant in part sun to full shade. Holly trees, once established, are drought-tolerant and grow to 15 metres in height.
Dwarf Western red cedar (Thuja plicata): Perfect for a small sunny garden space, growing 6 metres tall.
Common yew (Taxus baccata) grows to 15 to 20 metres tall and prefers acidic to neutral soil.
Other options suitable for North American gardens include witch hazel, dwarf Japanese maple, crabapple, red buckeye, and gray. These compact trees typically reach heights of 6 to 12 metres [7]
The results were conclusive: dwarf western red cedars removed about 50% of black carbon from the air
Footnotes:
1. What is a Wild Card? - Wild Card (wildcard.land/about/ about-wildcard)
2. English Gardeners Urged to Plant “Tredges” to Help Meet National Tree Coverage Goals by 2050 - EnviroLink Network (envirolink.org)
4. What Is an Ecotone? Definition, Characteristics, Examples - Biology Insights (biologyinsights.com)
5. Exploring Community Boundaries: Ecotones and Edge Effects • Environmental Studies (EVS) Institute (evs.institute)
6. Life at the (h)edge—Multidiversity in shrub ecotones is driven by habitat quality and shrub foliage cover - Klimm - 2025 - Journal of Applied Ecology - Wiley Online Library (besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
7. Hedges with Environmental Benefits | RHS Advice (rhs.org.uk)
8. An acoustical landscaping study: the impact of distance between the sound source and the landscape plants on traffic noise reduction | Environment, Development and Sustainability | Springer Nature Link (link.springer.com)
9. Where Do Our Trees Come From? - Woodland Trust (woodlandtrust.org.uk)
10. Step up restoration of ancient woodland before it is lost, Forestry England urged | Trees and forests | The Guardian (theguardian. com)
Holly tree
Chrysanthemum Passion of the Passion of the Chrysanthemum
You don’t feel neutral about Charles Bukowski, and you don’t feel neutral about gardening—both demand a certain kind of obsession that Regi Oneton feels deeply.
Passion Isn’t Polite
If you are a fan of Charles Bukowski, you know he’s either regarded as a genius or a piece of absolute human garbage. He doesn’t leave people apathetic or disinterested. I can certainly relate. I have read all his books ten times over, so trust me when I say he can drop some gems. One of my favourite Quotables is “Find what you love and let it kill you.” For me, the spirit of that is to find what makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up with interest and attack it with passion. For some people, it’s NASCAR, and for others, it’s our gardens. Some people find gardening boring; I say driving in circles is boring and requires only a few brain cells. Let’s tiptoe through what keeps me passionate and toiling in the soil.
Spring Has a Sick Sense of Humor
With spring not rearing its head and sending me snow in mid-April, it’s hard to stay motivated. In fact, I have been litreally cursing at the sky, and the neighbours are an ass hair away from calling someone. They are probably wondering what the hell he is so damn mad about. Well, dear reader, I get mad when someone or something interrupts my passions. In this case, it’s my damn garden still being frozen and a grow tent full of juveniles that are getting too big for their britches. Papa is sick of going downstairs to water the kids. Thank the plant gods I am a passionate gardener; I am down there, like clockwork, misting those little guys. Every sliver of sunlight I get through this constant barrage of clouds, rain, and SNOW reminds me of the good times ahead. Take what nature gives you and try not to bitch too much because she might make it snow until mid-April just to mess with you.
The Great Seed Mystery
My season has already been a bit of a Gong Show. I neglected to label my seeds from last year’s harvest, and now I have six trays of Lord knows what growing downstairs. There isn’t a tomato amongst them; I have the feeling Peter Piper packed plenty platters with pepper plants and will be making hot
BY REGI ONETON
Regi Oneton is a multi-disciplinary artist and daytime executive. He’s been a member of Socan since his first album release at the age of 20 and is a selftaught audio engineer and self-proclaimed studio rat. Regi is a late-blooming street artist and painter whose works can be found hanging in the offices of Burton and Vans Canada. Long-time contributor to the Under Pressure Graffiti Festival and lover of the Arts. As the years plow forward, he has added botanical enthusiast/plant father to his litany of passions. His interests include writing and spending too much time looking at his phone.
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Let’s tiptoe through what keeps me passionate and toiling in the soil.
sauce for the foreseeable future. Why am I not racking the shotgun and taking out a couple of trays? You guessed it, I love this shit. I’ll take the blessings as they come. Lemons into lemonade, remember? It will most certainly be a short season, given Mother Nature has her tits in a knot. But what she doesn’t know is I’ll take what I can get, just get me outside for crying out loud! There is soil to till, poop to scoop, and new beds to build; the prospect of these things keeps me warm and fuzzy enough to endure SNOW IN FUCKING APRIL.
The Sweet Smell of Commitment
I know I am not the only one, so don’t go looking at me cross-eyed when I say this, but I sure do love the smell of shit. Not yours or my cousins’ but the manure they spray on fields at the beginning of the season. Whether it be horse, sheep, or chicken, I love nothing more than opening the windows of my car when driving into town and taking deep breaths like I am taking a bong hit. Now that’s passion! I don’t recommend doing that with people in the vehicle, as it might induce vomiting in the less passionate individual. In my retirement years, if I can be the guy driving the poop tractor on a farm somewhere, I’ll be smiling ear to ear, taking deep fecal-infused breaths. Disgustingly passionate.
Retail Therapy for the Reluctant Gardener
If you feel that passion waning and you just can’t muster the bloody courage to get out there in the garden this season, let me suggest picking up a few new toys to play with. It could be as simple as a trowel or a sprinkler, or perhaps a rake with an AM/FM radio? I’m old, pardon me. If nature’s own miracle isn’t enough to get your blood pumping, then go ahead with the retail therapy, spoil yourself, and reenergise your passion. If nothing comes to mind immediately, then take a stroll at the garden store if you can bear it and pick up the first thing that catches your eye. I don’t like to spend much money on my garden as it is supposed to provide for me; however, I have been known to turn other people’s garbage into treasure. Having a few new items to create a fresh environment in the garden can really help motivate. I am big on repurposing. I have a shovel older than my father and am currently in the market for a nice old garden hoe. Feel free to leave yours by the curb. I’ll be by to pick it up shortly.
Loving the Game, Even When It Kicks You
In some seasons, there are no rewards. Crops fail, and people get depressed sometimes, but what keeps the farmer or clandestine gardener going is their love of the game. I will not be defeated by a long winter, a bad season, or a couple of mislabeled seeds. A great poem by Bukowski speaks of a little Bluebird that sings in his chest, even though he abuses it and pours liquor and cigarettes on it. For me, that Bluebird still singing represents your passion. It’s unwavering and unkillable. The sun is now hitting the windows just right again, and
let your garden know who it’s messing with this season: a passionate, knowledgeable gardener that’s ready to get down to business
things are sprouting. I hear the frogs next door croaking, and the grouse are flying around signalling that the bright blessings of the garden are here. The grow light in the basement radiates throughout the house, illuminating my way to the kitchen for a 2 am drink. Poetry, I think I’ll leave to the professionals. My domain is the dirt.
Get Your Hands Dirty
Whether you are reading this in a timely fashion or sitting on the toilet in the fall with an old, rusted copy, dropping the kids off at the pool, let your garden know who it’s messing with this season: a passionate, knowledgeable gardener that’s ready to get down to business. Grab your new AM/FM radio rake and get cracking, or buy a label machine on sale and name your god damn seeds so you don’t feel like a complete idiot come spring. Bukowski only got famous in his 50s and slept in rooming houses and on park benches. He stuck with it and showed immense passion and guts. So, let’s all get out there and produce some fruit and not be outdone by a raging alcoholic.
Good luck out there, my little bean sprouts. Stay motivated and keep your windows rolled up when passing a farmer’s field in the spring, unless, of course, you’re passionate about that sort of thing. 3
Innovative Growing Strategies
Galiano Grow House
We focus on biodiversity and working with the land to create new opportunities and help our plants thrive
Galiano Grow House hosts many farming-related activities. We focus on biodiversity and working with the land to create new opportunities and help our plants thrive. We employ many different techniques for the various crops and locations on the farm. Let’s take a closer look at how we manage our outdoor, indoor, and greenhousegrown crops as well as the unique methods we use to support plant health and resilience.
Outdoor Crop Management
We strive to grow our outdoor crops as organically as possible. However, we are not certified organic and see no reason to pursue this in the future. Knowing what we put into the soil and our bodies is very important for us. We use high-quality products, such as MIIM (Microbial mass), BioCanna (our fertiliser), Dynomyco (symbiotic fungi for roots), and Grow Genius (the highest level of monosilicic acid on the market). Each of these products brings a different balance to the soil and the plants, reducing pest and disease pressure. Starting plants with the best possible root system increases their chances of success. We treat all our crops with these additives before planting, and we see a remarkable difference in the plants in comparison to what we used to grow. It’s incredible to go from plants blown over in the wind to crops withstanding 100km/hr winds with more robust root systems. I also believe that without these key pieces to the puzzle, we would have significantly more bug and disease problems. You must get your plants as healthy as possible before planting them if you want the best-quality flowers and fruit.
Greenhouse Growing Strategies
For our greenhouses, we use super soil and add more additives and some organic 4:4:4, along with lots of insect frass and other natural fertilisers. We try to keep this growing space as simple as possible, since it runs 365 days a year for our personal food production. We light the greenhouse in winter and use direct evaporative cooling in summer to cool the space. The greenhouse is a breeding ground for bug problems, and without proper control, we can create big issues for ourselves. Ants and aphids are a death sentence in a greenhouse that runs year-round. Watch for ants and kill them promptly to control the aphid population. Ants farm aphids, and aphids spiral out of con-
BY ADAM CLARKE
Adam has provided planning and design services for cultivation and processing facilities over the last seven years with Stratus. His projects involve outdoor cul tivation, indoor cultivation, drying, processing, extraction, storage, bottling and packaging, and more. Living on a hobby farm, Adam loves all plants, including flowers, vegetables, and microgreens, but is most passionate about hemp and is in awe of the fast-growing plant and all of the benefits it offers to humans and the environment alike.
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trol very quickly without IPM. For the greenhouse, we typically release 20,000+ ladybugs each year as a kill step against aphids. We have tried other approaches; however, it seems extreme measures are needed to handle aphids in our greenhouse. The wonderful thing is the aphids don’t seem to leave the greenhouse, so our outdoor crops tend to be rather aphid-free.
Indoor Facility Best Practices
Our indoor growing facility takes a completely different approach. We focus on maintaining an environment that doesn’t allow bugs to start or exist. We have a full gowning and scrub-in procedure, and we use beneficial insects to control thrips and fungus gnats that get into the building. The key to an indoor grow is to make sure you never get bugs, or you’ll likely always have them. Our indoor space is quite small, so we take a break between crops and run ozone as a kill step. Indoor farming is nice because you can grow in winter; however, it is significantly more work than outdoor or greenhouse farming, and it always reminds me that nature knows best. The sun is a better source of light for the plants, and you certainly can see the difference.
Conclusion
Nothing beats growing plants and enjoying a connection with the earth and your food. We love having the opportunity to engage with such wonderful crops and people. Every year we have fewer bug problems and better crops. We’ve learned that careful consideration of planting and amendment choices will go a long way toward improving crops and yields. 3
Coleshill, Oxfordshire/Wiltshire
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Coleshill Organics in the UK
Some places have a quality that's hard to put into words — a sense that the land and the people tending it have arrived at an understanding. Coleshill Organics is one of them.
Tucked into a quintessentially English village on the Oxfordshire-Wiltshire border, much of it owned by the National Trust, the operation began in 1995 from just two acres at nearby Watchfield. It was started by Sonia Oliver with a simple conviction: that people deserve genuinely good food, and that growing it well is worth doing properly. She now runs the business from the walled garden at the heart of the village, and the scale, while still intimate, belies the depth of what's produced here. Three polytunnels keep production going year-round — salads and hardy leaves through the colder months, and heat-loving summer crops when it warms up. Beyond the tunnels, fields stretch out in every direction, enclosed by old walled garden boundaries and impressive heritage fruit trees. Those Victorian walls hold a surprising amount of heat from the sun, even on cold days — a quiet piece of old engineering that still earns its keep. Visit at almost any time of year, and you'll find people working: pressing leeks into cool earth, harvesting the last of the winter kales, or moving quietly between beds with the unhurried focus of people who know what they're doing.
Over 70 traditional varieties of fruit and vegetables are grown, selected specifically for flavour rather than shelf life or uniformity. The scheme has earned fans including Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Raymond Blanc, and has previously won Box Scheme of the Year and Horticultural Producer of the Year. All of it is certified organic by the Soil Association.
For those nearby, there's a particular pleasure in the on-site shed-shop, a refreshingly low-fuss setup where you pick up what you need directly from the farm and pay online. No middlemen, no plastic packaging, just honest vegetables at their freshest, grown a few metres away - this is where I would head for the sweetest beetroots, local eggs, and honey.
&Ireland
School and college groups visit in their thousands each year, picking and eating their way around the garden, developing a lasting curiosity about where food comes from. It's the kind of quiet, long-game thinking that runs through everything here.
Coleshill Organics is a reminder that the alternative was always possible. It just requires patience, skill, and a genuine love of the work, as well as people willing to cultivate not only vegetables but a beautiful, tasty kind of life.
Instagram: coleshillorganicsveg
Would you like to be featured as one of our local growers? If you’ve got a garden, grow room, or farm and have a story to share, contact us at growers@gardenculturemagazine.com.
Tony John
Wales
There's something quietly radical about a man with a PhD in fungal contamination of food grain choosing to spend his days growing salads at 1,000 feet in mid-Wales. But then again, Tony John has never taken the straight road when the interesting one was available.
He grew up on the South Wales coast, where his father grew veg, his mother foraged blackberries and damsons for jam, and the family ate with the seasons as a matter of course. Potatoes went into bags, onions were plaited and hung, beans were blanched and frozen, and apples were wrapped in tissue and stored in the garage.
"I guess my love of food stems from that," he says. “Helping my parents grow, store, and preserve."
That early instinct eventually led Tony through a degree in Biomedical Sciences, a doctorate studying mycotoxins in post-harvest grain across Africa, Bangladesh, and India, and then into a long career in agronomy — working directly on UK farms, advising on soil health, and later helping global start-ups bring precision agriculture technologies to British fields: satellites mapping weeds and disease, autonomous robots zapping problem plants, and LED wavelengths altering the nutritional profile of hydroponically grown food. Tony has seen the future of farming from several angles.
These days, his focus has sharpened around something more fundamental: the gut microbiome. Having watched the food industry prioritise calories over nutrition and ultra-processed convenience over real food, Tony analyses his own gut biome regularly, adjusting what he eats and tracking the results. The changes, he says, have been revolutionary. It was this conviction that brought him to fermentation — and to my Skool community, where he's been putting traditional preservation techniques to impressive use. For someone with his background in microbiology, lacto-fermentation isn't a trend; it's science with deep roots, and he's taken to it with real enthusiasm, which I am grateful for.
Up in the Elan Valley, growing at altitude comes with constraints. The last frosts linger into early June, and the first arrive by September. The growing window is short and unforgiving. But salads, brassicas, beans, and mushrooms thrive in the climate, keeping Tony self-sufficient from June through February — a quiet achievement that would have impressed his dad. From the Welsh coastline to the hillside, by way of mycology, agronomy, and gut science, Tony John is proof that the most interesting growers find soil via the longest, most unlikely routes.
Instagram: @the_handlebarred_turner
WAYS
1 Smart Organic Pest Management Strategies to Outsmart Garden Pests —Naturally!
In The Climate Change Resilient Vegetable Garden, Kim Stoddart writes about how changing weather patterns increase pest and disease risks in outdoor gardens. Extreme weather weakens plants, and wet, muggy conditions breed pests. There are many ways to protect crops, but at Garden Culture Magazine, we insist on organic, regenerative practices that benefit plants, people, and the planet. Enjoy our list of 5 Cool Ways to Outsmart Garden Pests—Naturally!
You can’t control everything, but you can minimise pest invasions with simple tricks. If you have a longer growing season, adjust your planting dates to avoid a particular pest’s egg-laying season. Use trap crops to attract pests away from prized plants, then dispose of them properly. Alternatively, plant a few seedlings early as decoys; toss the invaded plants before transplanting the clean ones. Some gardeners become so overrun with specific pests (like Colorado potato beetles, root maggots, or squash vine borers) that they skip planting the target crops for a year or two to disrupt the pest’s life cycle. Interplant aromatic herbs and flowers to boost biodiversity and repel bugs. Mulch between crops to deter egg-laying pests, but avoid excess around stems. When buying seedlings, always inspect them for pests and diseases.
Use Aphid Nurseries to Attract
Allies
Yes, you read right: we’re suggesting you build a nursery to attract aphids to the garden. In her book, Garden Alchemy, Stephanie Rose explains that pest populations must reach a certain threshold to encourage predatory insects to patrol your space. Similar to trap crops, an aphid nursery helps you determine where the aphids set up in the garden; ideally, away from your kitchen garden. Once the aphids move in, so will the chickadees, wasps, hoverflies, and ladybugs. Aphids love nasturtiums, mustards, kale, and Shasta daisies, which are all hardy enough to handle an infestation. If the aphid population takes over more than 20% of the plant, prune the affected leaves or spray with a hose.
Create Habitats for Helpful Wildlife 3
Don’t forget to provide food and habitat for beneficial insects and birds to support natural pest control. Dandelions are an early food source for bees and attract predatory bugs like hoverflies, whose larvae feed on aphids, mealybugs, leafhoppers, and caterpillars. Stinging nettles are not only medicinal but also offer habitat for ladybugs and lacewings, and Queen Anne’s lace attracts bees, wasps, and predatory flies. Birds are excellent natural pest control agents; they can easily tackle excessive caterpillar and slug populations. Winter bird feeders and a clean water source are crucial for keeping birds near your gardens year-round. Leaving seed heads on flowers and some leaf litter on the ground also greatly benefits the local bird population.
4
Water Wisely to Prevent Pests
Did you know that stressed plants send out chemical signals that attract plants? Pests love it when plants are under duress because they lack the energy to defend themselves and are easier to feed on. Over- or underwatering the garden is one stressor you can manage by developing good gardening techniques. Water plants in the early morning with a drip irrigation system or soaker hoses so moisture reaches the plant’s roots. If you’re forgetful, consider using basic timers so plants receive moisture at consistent intervals, and remember to adjust the watering schedule as plants grow and the weather warms. Sometimes plants that appear to be wilting in the heat are not actually thirsty. Invest in a moisture meter; this simple gadget will gauge how much water is near the root zone and whether watering is even necessary. Conserve moisture with mulch, but don’t pile it up too high around the stem; doing so will only encourage pests and diseases.
Sources:
Organic Pest Removal 5
Hands-On
Are Japanese beetles chewing holes in your bean plants? Get some garden gloves and squash ‘em. It’s not fancy, but it works! Be warned: these guys are crunchy. The same method can be used to kill the squash vine borer or aphids. Speaking of aphids, the good old-fashioned garden hose can help eliminate them; just be sure to check your plants regularly because they will return. Finally, there are many recipes for non-toxic herbal sprays that help deter insect pests, rabbits, and deer. Ingredients often include garlic, chilli peppers, and aromatic herbs such as basil, catnip, chives, lavender, mint, or rosemary. Ensure you’ve properly identified the pest in question and that the population is out of control before using an organic spray, as some herbs may also repel the good guys in the garden! 3
• The Climate Change–Resilient Vegetable Garden: How to Grow Food in a Changing Climate (Kim Stoddart)
• The Vegetable Garden Pest Handbook: Identify and Solve Common Pest Problems on Edible Plants - All Natural Solutions! (Susan Mulvihill)
• Garden Alchemy: 80 Recipes and Concoctions for Organic Fertilisers, Plant Elixirs, Potting Mixes, Pest Deterrents, and more (Stephanie Rose)
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